MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s state-owned Pemex oil company said Wednesday it made some financial profit on its aborted alliance with Repsol, after selling a 7.86-percent stake in the Spanish company for about the price it paid for it three years ago.
Pemex director Emilio Lozoya said Pemex sold off almost all of its holdings in Repsol at an average price of 20.10 euros ($27.54). That’s just 0.75 percent above the 19.95 euro price that Pemex paid in 2011. Pemex said it made profits from financing and swaps of about $900 million.
Pemex officials say the remaining stake, estimated at about 1 percent, will be sold when market conditions are right.
Pemex said it had been seeking strategic and financial returns on the investment, but Repsol had shown “a lack of interest.”
Lozoya said Pemex “will continue to be open to forming alliances on the global level, if they are profitable and involve technological, financial and human resources benefits.”
He said Pemex use the proceeds from the sale to invest in its portfolio of exploration, transport and industrial projects, but noted the amount is equivalent to a relatively small percentage of average annual investments..
The proceeds from the sale were estimated at about $2.2 billion euros ($3 billion).
Pemex has criticized Repsol’s management for what it calls the company’s poor performance.
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