Petrobras will issue dividends in spite of a net loss of $2.8 Billion for the fourth quarter

Petrobras reported a net loss in the fourth quarter of 17 billion Reis ($2.8 billion), due to non-recurring incidents. However, it intends to distribute dividends.

In a separate filing from the one containing its results, the company announced that it will distribute ordinary dividends of 9.1 billion reals.

According to the company, the main reason for the net loss, compared with the 31 billion net profit made a year ago, was the exchange rate fluctuations on debts between state-run oil companies and their subsidiaries abroad.

Petrobras claims that the financial transactions had no impact on its cash flow. Without them, it would have reported a net loss of 17.7 billion reals in the third quarter. This is still a drop of 53% year-on-year.

The firm reported a 10% decline in net revenue, which was 121.3 billion reais. This is below the estimates of analysts polled at LSEG who had predicted 127.8 million reais.

Petrobras reported adjusted earnings before depreciation, interest and amortization at 41 billion reals, a decline of 39% year-on-year. $1 = 5.8035 Reais (Reporting and editing by Fabio Téixeira, Marta Nogueira)

(source: Reuters)