PDVSA: Opens bonds to international market
PDVSA to offer $3bn bond internationally
PDVSA will register its $3 billion bond offering in international markets, making it easier for investors to use the securities to obtain dollars before they mature in 2011.
The bonds will be registered with Euroclear or Clearstream, PDVSA said today in a statement on its website.
The bonds were initially to be registered only in Venezuela.
The change will give buyers an “exit strategy,” making the bonds more attractive, Russel Dallen, head of Caracas Capital Markets at BBO Financial Services, a Bloomberg report said.
“It should help the market,” he said.
The bolivar strengthened 0.6% to 6.55 per dollar in unregulated trading after the addendum was posted, according to Dallen.
The bolivar has weakened 15.3% in the parallel market since 1 January as the government limited dollar sales to importers after oil revenue plunged 56% in the first quarter of the year.
Venezuelans turn to the parallel currency market when they can not get government authorisation to buy dollars at the official rate of 2.15 per dollar.