Brazil's Petrobras Seeks to Sell At Least $3 Billion Debt -- Source

SÃO PAULO--Brazilian oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA jumped into the global bond market Monday as it continues to borrow heavily to meet its enormous investment plan.

Petrobras, as the firm is known, plans to raise at least $3 billion from the sale of six sets of dollar-denominated bonds, including fixed-rate bonds and floating-rate debt, according to a term sheet provided by a banker. The fixed-rate bonds will mature in three, six, 10 and 30 years, while the floaters will mature in three and six years, the sheet said.

According to another person familiar with the transaction, total demand for the bonds has reached around $12 billion so far.

The investment-grade company is borrowing to finance the development of offshore oil fields that account for a large part of its $221 billion spending plan for the next five years.

Those efforts have turned Petrobras into the region's most indebted company, with net debt of 268 billion Brazilian reais ($115 billion) at the end of 2013. That figure was 36% higher than at the end of 2012, in large part due to the depreciation of the Brazilian real against the dollar during 2013.

Petrobras last tapped the market in January, when it raised the equivalent of 3.8 billion euros ($5.17 billion) through the sale of bonds denominated in euros and British pounds. The largest single issue then was a EUR1.5 billion four-year note priced at 99.705 to yield 2.829%. Petrobras also sold a GBP600 million 20-year bond at 98.845 to yield 6.732%.

Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at [e-mail] and Matthew Cowley at [e-mail]

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