Brazil’s antitrust regulator authorizes Petrobras sale of biodiesel unit worth $60M

In Brazil, BNAmericas reports that Brazil’s competition regulator, Cade, authorized RPBio to buy Petrobras Biocombustíveis’ 50% interest in local biodiesel plants operator BSBios. Petrobras said previously that the share is worth 322mn reais (US$60mn).

“RPBio is a holding belonging to the ECB group, which owns the remaining 50% of BSBios. It operates in the biofuel segment, focused on biodiesel production.” According to BNA Americas, “The companies told Cade that the operation represents Petrobras Biocombustíveis (PBio)’s exit from the biodiesel segment, in line with Petrobras’ divestment strategy, which also includes the exit from the ethanol segment. Cade said that even if ECB would commercialize all of BSBios’ production, its share in national biodiesel output would not surpass 20%.”

“Therefore, the vertical integration reinforcement related to this market would not be capable of generating any competition concerns,” the watchdog said according to BNA Americas.