MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil's state-controlled oil producer Petrobras is seeking to sell its 5.8 billion Brazilian real (USD1.4 billion) stake in petrochemical producer Braskem SA, said Reuters.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) has hired Brazilian bank Banco Bradesco SA as a financial adviser and has started to pitch the sale to foreign investors, Folha said, without naming sources.
Petrobras owns a 36 percent stake in Braskem, Latin America's largest petrochemical producer. The sale would help Petrobras meet its target of selling USD15.1 billion worth of assets in 2015-16, a key part of its plan to cut debt as oil prices plunge to 12-year lows.
Petrobras Chief Executive Aldemir Bendine late last year said the pace of divestments in 2016 would likely be faster than originally expected.
Representatives of Petrobras, Braskem and Bradesco were not immediately available to comment.
Petrobras has also cut its 2015-2019 capital spending budget by a quarter to USD98.4 billion from USD130 billion in June, according to a securities filing on Tuesday, and trimmed its outlook for oil production in Brazil this year by nearly 2 percent to 2.145 million barrels per day.
As MRC informed earlier, Petroleo Brasileiro SA is delaying its exit from Argentina’s petrochemical business as it focuses on a graft case in Brazil, two people familiar with the process said. Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based producer is known, received a joint offer for its 34% stake in Cia. Mega SA from partners YPF and Dow Chemical, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Buenos Aires-based YPF owns 38% of Mega and Dow has 28%.
Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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