Analyst: Pemex should not face problems issuing 2009 debt

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Mexico's state oil company Pemex should not have difficulties issuing at least the majority of its planned US$7.5bn-10.5bn in debt this year, Anne Milne, a Pemex analyst at Deutsche Bank, told BNamericas.

Pemex aims to issue as much as US$10.5bn in debt in 2009 due to lower oil prices and increased investments, CFO Esteban Levín said earlier this year.

Although Pemex may not be able to issue the full US$10.5bn, the company "could easily get US$7bn-8bn" as long as the issues are spread out across the year, according to Milne.

Pemex intends to issue bonds worth US$2bn-3bn in the international and domestic markets. The company also aims to collect US$2bn-2.5bn in bank loans and US$1.5bn-2bn from export credit agencies.

"[Pemex has] been pretty good about liability management: not having too many amortizations in one year, not having too many needs to go to the market. They've tried to do big benchmark issues instead of small deals," Milne said.

The company already sold US$2bn in 10-year bonds on the international market this year.

Demand for the bonds reached nearly US$6bn, principally from institutional investors in the US, Europe and Mexico.

Pemex's total debt at the end of 2008 was 587bn peso, up 17.1% from one year before due to the depreciation of the Mexican peso against the US dollar.

However, Pemex highlighted that total debt in dollars decreased to US$43.3bn from US$46.1bn at end-2008.

Some 83.5% of Pemex's debt is denominated in dollars and 0.1% in yen, according to Pemex.