Brazil Real Little Changed as Energy Minister 'Optimistic' on Petrobras
Brazil’s real was little changed after Energy Minister Marcio Zimmermann said he’s “optimistic” that Petroleo Brasileiro SA will carry out its planned share sale next month.
The real fell 0.01 percent to 1.7701 per dollar from 1.77 yesterday, erasing a gain of as much as 0.5 percent.
The sale, which the state-run oil producer estimates will be as much as $25 billion, will lure foreign investment, said Luiz Gustavo Medina, who helps oversee 245 million reais ($139 million) as a partner at M2 Investimentos in Sao Paulo. Investors also are betting more stock offerings will follow, further boosting the supply of dollars in the country, he said.
“If the offering happens the inflows will be huge,” Medina said by phone. “Then there’s the post-Petrobras, all the offerings that have been waiting all year for this one to go through. No one but the central bank is buying dollars right now.”
The government and Petrobras are still working on terms of an oil reserves-for-stock swap related to the share sale plan, Zimmermann said in an interview in Brasilia.
In the overnight interest-rate futures market, the yield on contracts due in January was unchanged at 10.68 percent.
Source: bloomberg.com
