Colombia’s Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry said the announcement to sell a government stake in oil company Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETL) was “an attack of impatience” sparked by last year’s flooding crisis.
Echeverry, speaking to lawmakers in Bogota, said the sale of as much as 10 percent will go ahead and be used to fund infrastructure projects. The decision to sell came as torrential rains caused thousands of Colombians to lose their homes in the flooding, and the government needed funds to help victims and pay for repairs, he said.
“We saw thousands of Colombians with water to their necks,” Echeverry said in Congress today. “That was the driver of our impatience. We needed to find resources” to help the flood victims.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will sell the government’s stake over four years. The company, in a share sale separate to the government’s, said Aug. 24 it received orders for about 2.4 trillion pesos ($1.35 billion) of stock that will go toward boosting production.
Ecopetrol fell 15 pesos, or 0.4 percent, to 3,855 pesos in Bogota trading today.
Bloomberg.
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