Petrobras posts $9.6 billion loss in 2015
Rio de Janeiro - Petrobras board announce financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 and annual results
Petrobras posted losses of $9.6 billion in 2015. In 2014, the loss totaled $5.958 billion. The financial results for the fourth quarter of 2015 were announced by CEO Aldemir Bendine on Monday (Mar. 21).
In the fourth quarter 2015, the company's bottom line was a negative $10.195 billion. The results for the third quarter had also been negative at $1.048 million, which was not enough to outbalance the profits of $1.462 billion and $138 million in the first and second quarter respectively, giving a positive result of $552 million for the first three quarters. The poor performance in the fourth quarter, however, canceled out all positive figures in the year.
Among the causes for its negative bottom line, the company cited impaired assets and investments, mainly due to falling oil prices and increased discount rates that resulted from the loss of investment grade (which led to losses of $13.731 billion), and interest expenses and foreign exchange losses (totaling $9.083 billion).
Total investments were $21.06 billion, 12% down from 2014.
According to Petrobras, the drop in Brent oil barrel prices negatively impacted the bottom line, with the real depreciation against the dollar adding further negative weight.
Aldemir Bendine said that despite the negative financial figures, the company had a positive management result. According to him, after eight years, the company succeeded in posting positive cash flow figures and management costs decreased significantly.
“Even in such a hard year as 2015, with the appreciation of the dollar against the real, we had a sharp decline in our net debt and a very tight discipline, not only in terms of capital, but also as a strong effort in terms of efficiencies.”
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Petrobras posts $9.6 billion loss in 2015
