Colombians buy shares in state oil firm

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | Aug 30, 2007 | Sibylla Brodzinsky

[decimon]

Bogotá, Colombia - Lucia Castillo varies her shopping list little from week to week, typically filling her basket with the usual cheese, bread, eggs, and papaya. But this week Ms. Castillo added something out of the ordinary to her shopping cart: shares in a multibillion dollar oil company.

Veering away from a Latin American trend of nationalization and greater government control of oil assets, Colombia put part of its state oil company Ecopetrol on sale Monday, hoping to capture the interest of tens of thousands of small investors, like Castillo, a retiree.

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The plan is "perhaps a bit too ambitious" according to oil analyst Roger Tissot with PFC Energy, a Washington-based consultancy. But he says it has been "well thought-out."

Mr Pérez, who bought his first-ever company shares on Monday, is banking on it: "You can't go wrong with an oil company, right?"

[decimon]

"You can't go wrong with an oil company, right?"

[TLI]

Colombia put part of its state oil company Ecopetrol on sale Monday, hoping to capture the interest of tens of thousands of small investors,

It will be very telling to see which of the central and south American countries condemns this.

[decimon]

It will be very telling to see which of the central and south American countries condemns this.

It's probably not so big a deal as to draw that much attention. And if it proves beneficial to the investors then potential detractors will likely want to ignore it.

[TLI]

And if it proves beneficial to the investors then potential detractors will likely want to ignore it.

Humm, you are right. Just like MSM here in the u.S.