Report: Petrobras May Incur $20 Bln Charge In Delayed Q3 Results

(RTTNews) - Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR) could take an impairment charge of about 52 billion Brazilian reais, or $20 billion, in its long-delayed financial results for the third quarter to write down the value of some of its assets, according to a Veja magazine blog Monday.

Veja's Mercados blog reported that the impairment is equal to about 42 percent of the market value of Petrobras, which has a market capitalization of $47 billion.

Petrobras is reportedly mired in a corruption scandal, with allegations of the company being involved in a political kickback scheme.

Petrobras' employees as well as some of the company's contractors have been accused by Brazilian police of inflating the value of projects for their own profit and then paying kickbacks to politicians, mostly from the ruling Workers' Party coalition.

The scandal led to an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and also resulted in the company's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, refusing to certify the company's accounts until Petrobras conducted its own inquiry.

The failure of Petrobras to satisfy PwC's concerns and also release its audited financial results by April 30 could trigger a technical default as the company is one of the biggest corporate borrowers in Brazil.

PBR closed Monday's trading at $7.23, down $0.02 or 0.28 percent on a volume of 23.62 million shares.