Petrobras to Launch IPO for Gaspetro; Notre Dame Raises R$5 Billion in Stock Offerings

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The highlights of Thursday’s corporate news are Petrobras, MRV Engineering, Banco do Brasil (“Bank of Brazil”) and Hering. MRV announced that it had raised R$90 million (US$22.5 million) with the first offering of shares in its Luggo real estate fund.

Banco do Brasil announced that it will reorganize its command structure, with a reduction in the number of directors, while Hering announced that it will distribute dividends of R$18.6 million to shareholders on December 30th. Petrobras intends to go public in the second half of 2020.

Petrobras (PETR3;PETR4)

The president of Petrobras, Roberto Castello Branco, said yesterday in Rio de Janeiro that the state-owned company will sell all of its stake in Gaspetro in the second half of 2020, through an IPO (initial public offering).

According to him, Gaspetro intends to dispose of its 51 percent stake in 19 natural gas distributors around Brazil. Petrobras holds this stake together with Japanese company Mitsui. In an article published today in the newspaper Valor Econômico, Castello Branco said that “we are going to permanently abandon the natural gas distribution business”.

Castello Branco said that Mitsui, after initial resistance, agreed to the sale. In 2018, Gaspetro recorded net revenues of R$417 million and profits of R$271.5 million. Castello Branco also stated that Petrobras will sell its stake in Braskem petrochemical company before the end of 2020.

Petrobras also paid the Federal Government R$34.42 billion for the portion of the signing bonus for the acquisition of the Búzios block, in the bidding of excess oil and gas volumes in a transfer of rights agreement.

Upon payment, the Federal Government transferred R$34.414 billion back to Petrobras, related to the amount provided for in the addendum to the transfer of rights agreement, which was updated by the SELIC rate through the date of payment.

Petrobras bought two blocks at the November auction bid. It paid R$61.38 billion for Búzios for a 90 percent stake in this area – the Chinese CNODC and CNOOC accounted for five percent each. The state-owned company also claimed Itapu, with a bonus of R$1.77 billion.

Asked when it will make the remaining payments, Petrobras referred to a note from the day the auction was held, on November 6th, according to which the total signing bonus will be paid by December 27th. The company said earlier that the payments will not change its debt level and will be supported by the current availability of cash and cash generation in the fourth quarter.

Notre Dame (GNDI3)

The Notre Dame Intermédica share in the subsequent follow-on offer was set at R$57.00, such that the operation reached R$5 billion.

The primary distribution of 65 million new shares, totaling R$3.705 billion, will be allocated to the company’s cash flow. Secondary shares were also placed, with the seller Alkes II – Multi-Strategy Equity Investment Fund, in an additional lot of 22,750,000 shares, or 35 percent of the base offer quantity.

Itaú BBA (leader), JPMorgan, Bradesco BBI, Citi, Morgan Stanley, Santander, Credit Suisse, and UBS were the coordinating banks. The start of trading of shares subject to the offer will take place on Friday, November 13th.

Source: InfoMoney