Sete Brasil still alive after vote
A PIVOTAL meeting to decide the fate of Brazilian rig-building entity Sete Brasil has failed to take a definitive decision on the Petrobras-sponsored company’s future, as a plan to take the cash-strapped contractor into bankruptcy protection was voted down, writes Fabio Palmigiani.
Petros, the powerful Petrobras employee pension fund, voted to keep Sete Brasil afloat, even though the majority of shareholders wanted the company — which was implicated in the Operation Car Wash corruption scandal last year — to file for bankruptcy protection.
Approval of the proposal for a Sete Brasil bankruptcy protection filing required the acceptance of 85% of the shareholders present at an assembly in Rio de Janeiro this week.
Petros, which holds an 18% stake at Sete Brasil, vetoed the proposal. Santander bank, with a 6% stake at Sete Brasil, also rejected the bankruptcy protection filing. Other shareholders like Petrobras and investment fund FI-FGTS abstained from voting, citing a conflict of interest.
A new meeting to debate the future of Sete Brasil will likely be scheduled for mid-February.
Sete Brasil originally issued billions of dollars’ worth of contracts to five local shipyards, and secured Petrobras charters for 28 of the 29 ultra-deepwater drilling rigs it has ordered.
However, the yards have now gone more than a year without payment because Sete Brasil’s long-term financing programme ran aground when the original anchor lender, Brazil’s National Development Bank, balked at the spiralling risks.
The project was kept afloat by bridging loans through a syndicate of banks, but these have fallen into past due status.
Sete Brasil has also proposed scaling down its rig building programme to 15 units, but Petrobras sources have suggested there is considerable internal resistance to the project.
Some of the units ordered, such as the drillship Arpoador, at Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz shipyard, and the semi-submersible rig Urca, at the BrasFels shipyard, are near completion.
A possible Sete Brasil bankruptcy filing would mark the beginning of a new wave of financial pain for Brazilian companies, almost two years after investigations into alleged bribes paid by contractors to secure lucrative deals at Petrobras went public.
石油圈
