Brazil gov’t to buy 2/3 of Petrobras

Brazil’s government, through its sovereign wealth fund and other state entities, agreed to buy nearly two-thirds of the shares in oil major Petrobras as part of the company’s massive $70 billion offering that was sealed last week.

The sovereign fund, state development bank BNDES and the National Treasury committed to buy about 2.8 billion shares of the 4.27 billion offered, Petrobras said in a statement on Tuesday.

Brazilian state entities placed bids for 1.81 billion voting shares (PETR3.SA), or 76 percent of the total, and 994.9 million preferred shares (PETR4.SA), about 66 percent of the volume.

Petrobras raised 120.25 billion reais ($70.52 billion) on Sept. 23 in the world’s biggest share offering. [ID:nN2499993]

Petrobras preferred shares, its most widely traded class of stock, were up 0.91 percent in midafternoon trading in Sao Paulo, while the voting shares were down 0.1 percent. The benchmark Bovespa index .BVSP was up 0.5 percent to 69,183.12.

Reuters