Petrobras May Take Up Market Price

05/21/2015 - 07h58

To enhance credibility with investors, Petrobras is to formally take up market prices in the sale of fuels in its new business plan, which should be released in the first half of June.

The team led by the new president, Aldemir Bendine, believes, however, that adjustments will have to be made in order to regain market trust.

Analysts, who spoke to Folha anonymously, say that without this hard evidence it would be important to disclose the readjustment formula.

According to what Folha gathered, the matter is still under discussion, but it is unlikely that the company will commit itself to a concrete readjustment formula for petrol and diesel, as was once contemplated by the former president of Petrobras, Graça Foster.

In recent weeks, the company's board has reinforced that market prices are going to be taken up. Without a change to pricing, the company may have difficulty obtaining enough revenue to ensure the repayment of its net debt, which has reached US$ 94 billion.

The pricing policy employed to curb inflation has emptied the state company's accounts, whose earnings have dropped by US$ 18 billion from 2011 to 2014 according to CBIE.

With the fall in oil prices, the new management has gained a respite at the face of this struggle. The gap between local and international prices, which came to 20% in early 2014, helped and turned over the company's accounts in the first quarter.

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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	Nacho Doce/Reuters
	Petrobras President Aldemir Bendine