Petrobras Celebrates the World's Largest Capitalization

The Company raised R$120.2 billion with the issuance of more than 4 billion shares

With the issuance of 2,369,106,798 common shares (voting) and 1,901,313,392 preferred shares, Petrobras undertook the largest capital increase operation in world history. The number of shares includes the base offerings (with 2.2 billion ON and 1.6 billion PN), the additional lot (119.8 million ON and 202.6 million PN), and the over-allotment (75.2 million ON and 112.8 million PN). The amount raised topped-out at R$120.2 billion or $69.9 billion. The price, per share, was R$29.65 for the common shares traded in Brazil, and R$26.30 for the preferred shares. In the United States, on the New York Stock Exchange, the prices were, respectively, $34.49 and $30.59.

The priority offering (for those who already were Petrobras shareholders) reached $49.4 billion. The institutional one reached $18.1 billion, of which $9.5 billion were raised in Brazil and $8.6 billion abroad. The retail offering, in turn, topped at $2.4 billion, $1 billion of which raised in Brazil, while $1.4 billion on the international market.

In the retail offering, 8,900 investors purchased ON shares, while 46,400 opted for the PN ones in the Country. Investment funds, which allowed minimum contributions of R$200, attracted a total of $52 million with 18,000 shareholders. Petrobras employees also participated in the operation: 14,900 employees invested a total of $392.1 million in the Company. In total, $1.4 billion were invested abroad.

Petrobras' capitalization, in the order of $69.9 billion, was the largest of its kind ever held in the world, well above other examples, which were also in the billions, such as that of the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland), in 2008, valued at $24,4 billion, or of the Agricultural Bank of China ($22.1 billion), also held in 2010.

The equity offering catapulted the Company from fourth to second place among the publicly traded oil companies: on September 23, 2009, Petrobras reached $223.2 billion in market value, only trailing Exxon Mobil. Before the offering, Petrobras' market value was $147 billion.