Brazilian oil and gas company Petrobras has issued a new set of rules to attract investors for the acquisition of its subsidiary Liquigás Distribuidora (an LPG bottling, distribution and sale subsidiary). Among the mains changes, Petrobras has reduced the minimum required revenue of potential bidders. At first, bidders with over 10% of market share on the LPG distribution market could not have a stake in the consortium that is over 40% of Liquigas' revenue. This threshold has been lowered to 30%.
This market share limitation was introduced by Petrobras to prevent the transaction from being blocked by competition authorities. Petrobras initially intended to sell Liquigás Distribuidora to Companhia Ultragaz, a subsidiary of Ultrapar Participações, but the transaction was blocked in March 2018 by the administrative council for economic defence (CADE), as it dangered the competitive markets and would potentially negatively impact consumers.
The change in the rules was set to lure more bidders, which can contact the sale manager institution (Banco Santander Brasil) until 19 April 2019.