Americans demonstrates interest in slice of BR Distribuidora

Sao Paulo-the retailer Lojas Americanas expressed interest in participating in the process of acquisition of equity interest in BR Distribuidora, fuel unit of Petrobras, according to material fact publicized by the company on Thursday.
"The company has expressed interest in participating in the process of acquiring and evaluating this business opportunity, not existing at the time, as the future presentation of proposal to acquire stake in BR Distribuidora," he said.
Lojas Americanas, one of the most traditional retail networks in the country, with over 1000 stores throughout the Brazilian territory, according to his Web site, while the BR Distribuidora controls the largest network of fuel stations in the country.
In the view of Edward Roche, Manager of Canepa Asset Management, the news makes sense from the point of view of a partnership in which the American stores would charge in the administration of the convenience stores.
"What doesn''t make sense is the Lojas Americanas in alone on this one, even though Petrobras as a partner in the operation of the stations, because the check is too big," he said, although among the partners of the network are the billionaire retailer of 3 g Capital private equity fund, which controls brazilian Ambev indirectly.
Petrobras not estimated a value for the BR Distribuidora, but all the subsidiary of the State-owned fuel was evaluated in the past for about 10 billion dollars by analysts at UBS Securities.
Earlier, Petrobras announced that the competitive process is aimed at sharing the control of BR Distribuidora, so that the oil company 49% of the voting capital and keep the majority of the capital stock of the subsidiary.
BR Distribuidora, formerly known as Petrobras Distribuidora, is one of the main assets involved in the process of disinvestment of State-owned oil company, whose goal is to achieve 34.6 billion dollars through the sale of assets between 2015 and 2018.
With financial problems, Petrobras seeks to raise funds through the sale of assets to stand up to his huge net indebtedness, 332.4 billion reais in June 30, although it has reduced sharply its five-year investment plan to 74.1 billion dollars.
Petrobras estimates that the sale process of the BR Distribuidora will be completed next year.