Seabras Reschedules Equity Debut

Seabras Servicos de Petroleo has pushed backing the timing of an up to BRL1.44bn ($823m) IPO to early April after having initially scheduling pricing for next week. The Brazilian spinoff of Norwegian oil services provider Seadrill explains that it has reached an agreement with Petrobras, its main client, to make “certain changes to its corporate structure,” but it cannot do this and still carry out the IPO with its 3Q2011 numbers. As a result, it will have to re-file with 4Q2011 numbers, meaning an April pricing is more likely. Seabras intends to sell 48m primary shares, setting a range of BRL20.00-BRL26.00 per share. This would indicate a BRL1.44bn size at the top of the range, or a BRL1.1bn sale at the bottom, assuming a 15% greenshoe is used in each case. A 20% hot issue is also available. The owner of 3 drillships with long-term Petrobras contracts was spun off last year and is raising funds for acquisitions and other investments as it looks to cover a wider range of oil field services in Brazil. It generated BRL524.7m in Ebitda in the first 3 quarters of 2011, up from BRL371.2m in the corresponding period in 2010. It is also negotiating a 50-50 joint investment with pipe-laying support vessel operator and fellow Petrobras contractor SapuraCrest. BTG Pactual, Morgan Stanley and Citi are managing the deal. Brasil Travel is expected to be the first IPO from LatAm this year after scheduling an up to BRL1.21bn offer for February 8. However, Peru’s Andino Investment Holdings could beat it to the punch if a rescheduled $50m-$60m IPO goes ahead Thursday.