13 February 2015, News Wires – Petrobras plans to publish audited results for 2014 by the end of May as it recalculates losses stemming from a corruption scandal, the company said on Thursday in a securities filing.
The Brazilian state oil company said the drop in oil prices and the company’s high indebtedness will force it to reduce investment and look at other financing alternatives and ways to raise its cash flow.
It said it has no plans to issue new company shares.
Petrobras said it was developing a new methodology to calculate the losses in the value of its assets caused by a massive price-fixing, bribery and political kickback scandal engulfing the company.
Newly named chief executive Aldemir Bendine has said that potential asset write-downs caused by the graft scandal would be “much lower” than estimates of 88.6 billion reais ($30.9 billion) made in notes that accompanied the company’s unaudited third-quarter results released in January.
Petrobras has to publish realistic estimates of the losses as it strives to restore market credibility and avoid default on its massive debt, the largest of any oil company in the world.
Bendine told Globo television on Tuesday that a write-down is to be expected in fourth-quarter audited results which Petrobras must provide the market by the end of June or face a possible default declaration on more than $50 billion of bonds.
In an interview in Valor Economico newspaper published on Thursday, Bendine ruled out raising capital by selling Petrobras’ shares in the market, but said some units could go public.
– Reuters