UPDATE 1-Venezuela's PDVSA does not expand $3 bln bond issue
Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:21pm GMT
* Receives offers worth almost $7 billion
* Paper will have a coupon of 8.5 percent (Adds details, background)
CARACAS Oct 25 (Reuters) - Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA received bids for more than double the $3 billion in 2017 bonds it offered a week ago, but said on Monday it chose not to increase the size of the issue.
PDVSA launched the bond in its latest financing bid to juggle obligations to service providers, nationalized companies and social spending, as well as planned investment. [ID:nN18282630]
In a statement, it said it received offers worth $6.985 billion before a deadline last Friday.
The paper will have a coupon of 8.5 percent and be priced at par, or 100 percent of value. Separately, the company is offering to swap a bond due next year for an issue maturing in 2013.
PDVSA, one of the world's largest oil companies, has not fully recovered from a drop in crude prices two years ago and owes billions of dollars to service providers and in compensation to firms taken over by President Hugh Chavez.
The bond, which is redeemable in dollars but can be bought with bolivars, also serves as a foreign exchange instrument to sidestep strict currency controls in South America's top oil producer.
In August, the Finance Ministry issued a $3 billion sovereign bond maturing in 2022 with a higher coupon that was heavily oversubscribed. [ID:nN16259736] (Editing by Leslie Adler
