Petrobras warns of rising debt levels

Warning: Petrobras chief executive Maria das Gracas Foster

REUTERS

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News Wires

 11 February 2013 03:12 GMT

Brazil’s state-led Petrobras has warned the government about rising debt levels that could jeopardise the oil company’s investment grade credit rating, according to a local newspaper.

Petrobras chief executive Maria das Gracas Foster told Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega in a meeting that without higher fuel prices in the country, the company’s debt would rise well above its internal target, Reuter quoted a report from the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper on Saturday.

According to an anonymous source cited by the paper, Gracas Foster told the minister, who also chairs the Petrobras board, last week that debt could reach 3.5 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by the fourth quarter of this year.

Petrobras did not…

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