Ecopetrol SA (ECOPETL) fell to a three-week low to trade below a discount price for investors paying cash to take part in Colombia’s largest stock sale in about four years as U.S. equities markets and oil prices slumped.
The Colombian state-controlled oil producer slid 1.6 percent to 3,600 pesos at 12:55 p.m. in Bogota trading, after earlier dropping as much as 1.9 percent to 3,590 pesos, the lowest intraday level since July 15. The company seeks to sell 676 million shares at 3,700 pesos per share, or 3,608 pesos a share for cash payment. The sale is from July 27 until Aug. 17.
“The timing for Ecopetrol wasn’t the best,” said David Aldana, an economic analyst at brokerage Ultrabursatiles SA in Bogota. “A price under 3,608 brings a bit into doubt the success of the placement.”
A slump in U.S. equities markets and declining oil prices may stymie efforts by Latin American oil producers to raise funds for expansion. Brazilian state-controlled producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s Chief Executive Officer Jose Sergio Gabrielli said today that the global equities and economic crisis may reduce demand for assets it seeks to divest.
1-Trillion Pesos
As of Aug. 4, Ecopetrol received orders for about 1 trillion pesos ($551.4 million) of shares, an official who can’t be identified because of company policy said today in an e-mail.
Ecopetrol seeks to help fund an $80 billion investment plan this decade with the sale, Colombia’s largest since the Bogota- based company’s $2.7 billion initial public offering in 2007.
Oil for September delivery fell $3.28, or 3.8 percent, to $83.60 a barrel at 11:43 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil dropped to $82.52, the lowest intraday price since Nov. 24. Prices have retreated 8.5 percent this year.
Stocks sank, extending the worst U.S. slump since the bear market in 2008. The S&P 500 lost 5.6 percent to 1,132.32 at 2:18 p.m. in New York, its lowest level since October.
Bloomberg.
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