The Next Company to Be Sold by Petrobras Amid Its Divestment Plan Will Be Liquigás

Petrobras Awaits Bids for Liquigás On August 7, Said State President Roberto Castello Branco On Thursday.

The next company to be sold by Petrobras amid its divestment plan will be its gas cylinder distribution subsidiary, Liquigás. The oil company, which owns 100% of Liquigás, started the process to divest the company in April. Previously, Petrobras had announced the sale of the company to Grupo Ultra, but the deal was blocked by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) in February 2018.

“The next (company) to leave the state will be Liquigás, now in August… Petrobras is selling 100% of Liquigás and should receive the final binding offers on August 7,” said Castello Branco at a press conference after a stock offering ceremony for BR Distribuidora on the São Paulo stock exchange B3.

Liquigás had a revenue of 5.6 billion reais in 2018 and a net profit of 147.5 million reais. With 20 million customers, the company has 5,000 points of sale. In June, Castello Branco had already indicated that Petrobras would leave the gas transportation and distribution sector, noting that he was waiting for the next steps in the sale of Liquigás.

The operation carried out on Tuesday night (23) involving BR Distribuidora, previously controlled by Petrobras, was the reason for the ceremony on Thursday. “For the base offering and the ‘greenshoe,’ demand was four times greater than the offering. The operation was a success,” said Castello Branco, adding that, as a shareholder, Petrobras will demand results from BR.

Petrobras Divestments

Roberto Castello Branco highlighted the divestments already made by Petrobras, stating that the company has accumulated 15 billion dollars in asset sales this year and promised that there is “much more” to come.

“This month of July, we completed 15 billion dollars in divestments, and there is much more to come,” said the executive, classifying the first Brazilian privatization via the capital markets as historic, in what he called “true capitalism.”

“We have a broad divestment program… Others will do better than Petrobras. We will do our job very well in oil and gas exploration and production.”

In addition to Liquigás and BR Distribuidora, Petrobras has already initiated this year, for example, divestments in oil fields, refineries, and pipelines, with sales such as the Transportadora Associada de Gás (TAG) and the Pampo and Enchova fields.

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