Posted on 08/16/2008 6:57:44 PM PDT by FormerACLUmember
London: Billionaire investor George Soros bought an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) in the second quarter, making the Brazilian state-controlled oil company his investment fund's largest holding.
As of June 30, the stake in Petrobras, as the Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer is known, made up 22 per cent of the $3.68 billion of stocks and American depositary receipts held by Soros Fund Management, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Petrobras has since slumped 28 per cent.
Soros has increased his mining and commodities holdings, a move that accelerated in the first quarter with purchases of such companies as Cia. Vale do Rio Doce, the world's largest iron-ore producer, and Talisman Energy, a Canadian oil and gas company. In November, Petrobras announced the discovery of Tupi, a field with as much as 8 billion barrels of reserves, making it the largest find in the Americas since 1976.
"Petrobras has something that other oil companies don't have: oil - lots of it and they're going to find more," said Ricardo Kob-ayashi, equity fund manager with UBS Pactual in Rio de Janeiro.
"If you can buy now and hang on, if you have the staying power, it's great."
Tupi is part of a new deepwater offshore region known as the pre-salt that may contain as much as 50 billion barrels, according to Peter Wells, oil analyst with the UK's Neftex Petroleum Consultants.
The drop in Petrobras' US-traded common shares since June 30 would have reduced the value of Soros's disclosed stake by $235 million.
Soros Fund Management didn't report holding any Petrobras shares at the end of the first quarter. It did disclose much smaller stakes in the Brazilian oil company during 2007, including 150,000 depositary shares, with a market value of about $17.3 million at December 31.
The hedge fund company also had calls on another 35,000 shares at December 31. Petrobras shares traded at an average closing price of $64.83 each during the second quarter, when Soros bought the stake.
The shares on Friday dropped 91 centavos, or 1.8 per cent, to $50.68 in New York, valuing Petrobras at $204.8 billion, the world's 11th-biggest company by market capitalisation.
Ooops!
"If you can buy now and hang on, if you have the staying power, it's great."
Still, anything bad for George Soros is good for America and good for the world.
will someone explain why a guy who has made so much money from capitalism,
hates capitalism and democracy?
This is one speculator I hope gets rear ended on this stock. What a flaming anti-American “hypocriter”.
The money is just a means to the long term end. He hopes that he shall be a commissar in the event that his dreams come true.
Does he have a lot of personal bodyguards? How scum like this man has not been assasinated puzzles me.
MONEY.
Soros is forever betting against US prosperity. His investments are winners if we lose.
soros makes money if we lose our freedom, you are saying?
Yes, whenever Soros is losing money, it is less for Obama and his other democrat party employees.
I don't know about that. I do know that only anti-American traitors and totalitarians like Media Matters would take his evil payoffs.
quite frankly, i do not understand george soros.
You mean like McCain and his Reform Institute?
Yikes!
Soros has covered his bets this election cycle so he can’t lose since he is the puppet master for both Obama and McCain.
Ping.
So Democrats are in favor of drilling?
I’m so confused!
< / sarc>
Why is it okay for Brazil to achieve energy independence but not America?"
- Comrade Juan McNut's question to Obamessiah
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