Cash-strapped Mexican state-owned oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMX.UL) (Pemex) said on Tuesday it had completed a $2 billion bond raising to be used largely to refinance some of its debt.
Pemex did not give details on the bond’s tenor or coupon rate, but it said the deal had been five times oversubscribed.
Two company sources told Reuters the bond has a 10-year maturity, and was part of a move by the heavily indebted firm to secure financing during the first quarter.
“The funds obtained will be to pay bonds maturing this year,” one of the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity, noting that Pemex had planned the raising to relieve financial pressure during the first quarter.
Pemex had financial debts of some $105 billion at the end of the third quarter, when it posted losses of nearly $2.6 billion.
The company’s debt payments due for the first quarter of 2023 stand between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, the firm’s Chief Executive Octavio Romero said this month.
Latest Updates
- Oil rises as slowing U.S. inflation eases recession concerns
- U.S. exports to China of light, sweet crude hit 5-month high
- U.S. refiners expect Russian fuel sanctions to keep margins high
- Western tankers ramp up Russian oil shipments under price cap
- Indonesia’s Pertamina geothermal unit targets raising as much as $652 mln in IPO
The debt payments the company was due to make in January were being met with its own funds, the source said.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week the company will have “complete support” from the government, and that it had a plan to ensure pending bond payments are met.
The left-leaning Lopez Obrador has made turning around Pemex’s fortunes a priority of his administration.
He has pumped in billions of dollars to support the company and to boost domestic production of motor fuels by refining more of Pemex’s crude oil production at home.
Crude output has fallen by around half since peaking in 2004 at 3.4 million barrels per day (bpd). Crude production has risen for the last three years, but is still below the 2018 average.
