Petroleo Brasileiro SA plans to release 2014 audited financial results April 22 after a five-month delay, averting a potential acceleration of debt payments.
The Rio de Janeiro-based oil producer, at the center of Brazil’s largest corruption scandal, said Monday it will present the long-delayed financial results to its board and release them after approval.
“The company expects to release these financial statements after the meeting, subject to a decision by the Board of Directors,” Petrobras said in a regulatory filing.
A lack of consensus over graft-related writedowns has delayed the release of earnings and temporally shut Petrobras out of international bond markets at a time of slumping oil prices, threatening the company’s spending plans.
If approved, the company will meet an end-May deadline that, if missed, could potentially trigger an acceleration of payments on some debt.
The board will review the 2014 third-quarter and full-year results at the meeting, Petrobras said. Petrobras didn’t mention if a meeting previously set for April 17 will proceed.
Petrobras’s troubles swelled last November after external auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers refused to sign the financial results amid a fast-moving corruption and kickback probe, and requested an independent internal investigation. Moody’s Investors Service cited the delays when it downgraded Petrobras’s credit rating to junk in February.
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