Ecopetrol SA, Colombia’s state-run oil producer, seeks to sell 5.5 trillion pesos ($2.9 billion) of bonds in Colombia or abroad to help finance investment. Ecopetrol said it may have one or multiple debt sales, in a statement distributed today by e-mail in Bogota.
AVILA CAPITAL MAKETS: ” Venezuela indicative run”
Bid Ask Bid Ask
Security Px Px YTM YTM Bench
——————————————————————————–
VENZ 5⅜ 10 99.100-99.750 7.583/ 5.966 1YR
VENZ 10¾ 13 94.000-96.000 12.916/12.174 3YR
VENZ 8½ 14 84.000-85.250 13.264/12.853 5YR
VENZ 5¾ 16 69.750-71.000 13.240/12.857 5YR
VENZ 13⅝ 18 97.500-98.500 14.136/13.928 5YR
VENZ 7 18 67.750-69.250 13.362/12.985 7YR
VENZ 7¾ 19 70.000-70.400 13.390/13.295 7YR
VENZ 6 20 59.750-61.500 13.069/12.642 7YR
VENZ 9 23 71.600-72.750 13.710/13.468 7YR
VENZ 8¼ 24 66.750-67.750 13.525/13.312 7YR
VENZ 9¼ 27 75.500-76.500 12.785/12.606 7YR
VENZ 9¼ 28 70.750-72.250 13.632/13.339 7YR
VENZ 9⅜ 34 70.750-73.000 13.503/13.084 7YR
VENZ 7 38 57.250-58.500 12.543/12.282 10YR
AVILA CAPITAL MARKETS: “Colombia Sov Indications”
Bid Ask Bid Ask
Security Px Px YTM YTM Bench
——————————————————————————–
COLOM 10 12 114.250-114.750 2.229/1.980 2YR
COLOM 10¾ 13 121.150-121.650 2.961/2.798 3YR
COLOM 8¼ 14 118.500-119.000 3.968/3.864 5YR
COLOM 7⅜ 17 115.000-115.500 4.791/4.712 7YR
COLOM 7⅜ 19 115.000-115.500 5.266/5.201 7YR
COLOM 11¾ 20 144.500-145.500 5.805/5.701 7YR
COLOM 8⅛ 24 120.000-120.750 6.010/5.940 10YR
COLOM 7⅜ 37 110.500-111.250 6.547/6.492 10YR
COLOM 6⅛ 41 95.000- 95.750 6.502/6.443 30YR
(BN) “Venezuela Owes $12 Billion for Seized Assets, Chamber Says”
Venezuela owes $12 billion to more than 20 companies that belong to the Venezuela-U.S. Chamber of Commerce for assets the government seized over the past three years, chamber president Carlos Henrique Blohm said.
The assets of 28 members of the chamber, including nine companies that provided oil service work for state oil producer Petroleos de Venezuela SA, have been nationalized Blohm said today. Of the nationalized companies, 22 have gotten no response from the government to their requests for compensation, he said.
Four companies have been paid, and two have received partial compensation, Blohm said.
“PDVSA is very behind in paying off debts to some of our members,” Blohm said, declining to name any of the companies that are owed money for compensation.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has nationalized parts of the country’s oil, cement, metals and utilities industries as he extends the role of the state in the economy to create what he calls “21st century socialism.” U.S. oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips, whose assets were taken in 2007, are involved in arbitration proceedings against the South American country.
Venezuela Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez wasn’t available for comment when his office was contacted by Bloomberg News.
The chamber of commerce, known as Venamcham, has more than 1,100 members including Cargill Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., Nestle SA, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.
Bilateral trade between Venezuela and the U.S. was $37.4 billion last year, according to the U.S. State Department.
Dollar Sales
Members of the chamber of commerce are also owed about $7 billion in delayed dollar sales at the official exchange rates, Blohm said. The Foreign Exchange Administration Commission, known as Cadivi, which approves dollars for importers as part of currency controls established in 2003, has recently been assigning dollars approved as long as a year ago, Blohm said.
The dollars at the official rate would be used to repatriate as much as $1 billion of dividends, he said.
Phone calls to the communications office of Cadivi seeking comment weren’t answered after regular business hours.
Cadivi has been adapting its system to process requests at two different exchange rates after Chavez devalued the currency on Jan. 8 and created a multi-tiered exchange system where imports considered essential are given 2.6 per dollar and non- essential goods receive 4.3 per dollar.
Companies that don’t get government approval to buy dollars at the official rates turn to the unregulated currency market, where traders said the bolivar traded at 6.78 per dollar today.
Venezuela’s electricity rationing and rolling blackouts this year may shave 1 percentage point off gross domestic product, Blohm said. The economy shrank 3.3 percent in 2009.
REUTERS: “Panama economy grew 2.4 percent in 2009”
PANAMA CITY, March 2 (Reuters) – Panama’s economy grew 2.4 percent in 2009 after expanding 3.5 percent in annual terms during the fourth quarter, the government said on Tuesday.
Panama’s economy weathered the global economic crisis better than most other Latin American countries because of its relatively strong financial sector and increased construction activity.
“Panama had one of (Latin America’s) most stable banking sectors, which was relatively isolated from the crisis,” said independent Panamanian economist Horacio Estribi.
Increased activity in telecommunications and the ongoing $5.25-billion expansion of the Panama Canal also propped up growth, the government said.
However, traffic through the Panama Canal — a major economic driver — fell in 2009, and overall economic expansion was down sharply from 2008’s 10.7 percent growth rate.
But at the same time, higher toll fees led the canal to generate more revenue last year, which helped government coffers and aided public spending.
The government expects growth this year of 5 percent. (Reporting by Sean Mattson; Editing byAndrea Ricci)
EL UNIVERSAL: “Venezuelan economy down 3.3 percent in 2009 amidst world oil crisis”
Venezuela’s economy fell by 3.3 percent in 2009, swept away by the global crisis and falling oil prices, the main export of the country, informed the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV).
In the fourth quarter 2009, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 5.8 percent over the same period of 2008. This, together with the decline of 2.3 percent in the first nine months, resulted in a contraction of 3.3 percent in the year, the BCV said in a statement, Efe reported.
Last December, the president of the BCV, Nelson Merentes, in his traditional year-end speech and based on preliminary data, said that the economy had shrunk by 2.9 percent in 2009, noting it was the first fall that Venezuelan GDP suffered in the past five years.
The BCV said in the report released on Tuesday that the oil business declined by 7.2 percent in 2009 over the previous year, due to the “lower level of production” of the country, the fifth largest exporter of crude.
The drop in production was due to compliance with the cuts adopted by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which Venezuela is a founding member, said the BCV.
According to official figures, Venezuela agreed to reduce oil production by 364,000 bpd in 2009, leaving production at some 3 million barrels a day.
Meanwhile, non-oil activity contracted by 4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, said the official report without specifying a global figure of the year on the conduct of that business.
During the fourth quarter, the largest declines in non-oil activity occurred in the areas of transport services (-16.9 percent), commerce (-13.9 percent ) manufacturing (-6.9 percent), mining ( -4.8 percent), construction (-3.5 percent), and real estate services (-2.8 percent), said the BCV.
By contrast, growth was recorded in the sectors of communications (10.5 percent ), electricity and water (5.5 percent), producers of general government services (2.8 percent) and community, social and personal services (0.6 percent), the BCV added.
In 2009, the so-called aggregate supply shrank by 17.1 percent, hit both by declining imports (-39.8 percent), and by the aforementioned decline in GDP, the report of the BCV said.
The government said that in 2010 the economy would record a “modest” growth of 0.5 percent.
The Venezuelan economy grew by 4.8 percent in 2008, 8.4 percent in 2007, 10.3 percent in 2006, up 9.4 percent in 2005 and 17.9 percent in 2004.
AMBITO FINANCIERO: “JPMorgan upgrades Argentine bonds to overweight”
Argentina was raised to overweight in the EMBIG portfolio at JPMorgan Chase & Co., one day after President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner revoked the controversial DNU emergency decree No 2.010/09, which created the Bicentennial Fund for Stability and Reduced Indebtedness, and the Central Bank transferred USD 6.6 billion in foreign currency reserves to the Treasury for foreign debt payments, following two presidential decrees.
The American bank recommended “moving back to overweight by buying 2 million Boden ’15s at USD 77.10”, according to a report by Vladimir Werning, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
“At current prices we believe that investors face an asymmetric pay-off,” Werning said.
“We therefore recommend moving back to overweight by buying 2 million Boden ’15s at USD 77.10,” Werning added.
AVILA CAPITAL MARKETS “PDVSA INDICATIVE RUN”
Security Bid Ask Bid Ask Px Px YTM YTM Bench
——————————————————————–
PDVSA 0 11 87.100-87.400 10.993/10.701 2YR
PDVSA 4.9 14 66.000-67.500 15.406/14.816 5YR
PDVSA 5 15 62.250-63.750 15.187/14.652 5YR
PDVSA 5⅛ 16 58.250-59.750 15.364/14.855 5YR
PDVSA 5¼ 17 61.000-62.250 14.121/13.737 5YR
PDVSA 5⅜ 27 49.500-51.000 12.658/12.299 10YR
PDVSA 5½ 37 47.500-47.750 12.148/12.088 10YR
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