(Reuters) -A U.S. court officer overseeing the auction for PDV Holdings, the parent of Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum, has recommended a $7.38 billion bid from Gold Reserve subsidiary Dalinar Energy, according to a court filing and a company statement.
A group led by commodities trading house Vitol had submitted a bid exceeding $10 billion in the final hours of the U.S. court-organized auction, two sources with knowledge of the offer told Reuters on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the court selected a $3.7-billion offer from Contrarian Funds’ affiliate Red Tree Investments as a starting bid in the second bidding round for PDV. The offer included an agreement to pay holders of a Venezuelan defaulted bond.
Court officer Robert Pincus said he believed that Dalinar’s bid was the best among those submitted, according to the court filing.
“Dalinar’s proposed sale transaction is approximately $3.576 billion higher than the stalking horse transaction,” the filing said, referring to Red Tree’s bid, adding that Dalinar’s was “the highest bid that meets the bid requirements”.
Dalinar’s $7.38 billion bid is a revised one, relying on a combination of equity and debt financing, and is supported by a consortium including Rusoro Mining, two units of U.S. conglomerate Koch and Germany’s Siemens Energy, Gold Reserve said.
Dalinar had initially made a $7.1 billion bid for PDV.
The sale requires approval of a judge.
(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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