📄 Extracted Text (389 words)
7 October 2015
Corporate Credit,Energy
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A.
antestments: why not sell al€ of non•core assets (rather than 49% stakes); and
woukl pre-salt reserves be realty sokl at low valuations?
A relatively easy way for the Brazilian government to provide support to
Petrobras would be letting the company sell all of its non-core assets (fuel
distribution, natural gas distribution, power plants and international assets).
We believe that the company could eventually raise as much as USD14bn with
those (about USD6bn for fuel distribution, USD6bn for natural gas distribution
and electricity assets, and USD2bn for international assets) at accretive to
leverage valuations (EV to EBITDA above 5x). However, the company has thus
far indicated its intention of selling only minority stakes in the domestic assets,
which makes no sense to us except for fear of more aggressive layoffs (a
macro rather and a company-specific concern).
But the key question about asset sales has to do with undeveloped pre-salt
reserves. Wood Mackenzie estimated in 2014 that Petrobras could have about
25bn barrels of crude oil recoverable reserves in its pre-salt fields and
estimated that they could be worth about USD6.6/boe while the Brent price
was above USD90/bbl. Since Brazilian pre-salt reserves break even in the low
40s (USD/bbl), it is hard to imagine a large chunk of those selling at above
USD2/bbl (or even less than that) in the near term due to the uncertainty about
future oil prices and the increased risk premium associated with assets in
Brazil. Moreover, finding buyers willing to pay cash in size today could prove
quite challenging, as the major oil companies are dealing with their own
capital structure issues and business plan revisions. We also view the political
challenge of letting go of strategic energy reserves at low valuations as a
important obstacle. In summary, we see the sale of pre-salt reserves as a
binary call on oil prices and thus not really meaningful as a source of resources
for the company in a bear scenario for the oil prices. Or, in other words, it is
worth the least when the company needs it the most. But maybe the company
will be able to raise at least USD10-15bn of those in the next four years.
Page 8 Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
CONFIDENTIAL - PURSUANT TO FED. R. CRIM. P. 6(e) DB-SDNY-0079290
CONFIDENTIAL SDNY_GM_00225474
EFTA01380761
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