A $5 Billion Offering Tests Appetite for Slimmed-Down Petrobras
- BNDES is selling up to 10% of voting shares in offering today
- It comes a decade after oil producer’s record $70 billion sale
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Petroleo Brasileiro SA is starting this decade much the same way it started the last: with a highly anticipated share sale. The similarities end there.
Back in 2010, Petrobras was a booming oil powerhouse with ambitions to more than double output and cement its monopoly on a massive offshore oil discovery. In 2020, it is a scandal-scarred company that never came close to hitting its end-of-the-decade production target. Ten years ago, Brazil’s government used a record-breaking share offering to increase its stake. Now, the national development bank known as BNDES is unloading Petrobras stock as both the government and the state-run oil producer slim down.