Grupo BTG Pactual allegedly underpaid for oil assets in Africa it bought from Petroleo Brasileiro SA in 2013, a Brazilian senator said in a plea-bargain deal published by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
The Sao Paulo-based bank paid $1.5 billion for a 50 percent stake in Petrobras’s Africa division. That was less than the $2.7 billion valuation estimate from consulting companies hired by the oil producer to review the divestment, Senator Delcidio Amaral said in the document, citing information obtained from Petrobras executives.
BTG said in an e-mail that its offer for Petrobras’s assets in Africa was the highest in an auction to which 14 other players were invited to participate. It was considered fair by Standard Chartered Bank, the financial adviser hired by the oil company, BTG added. Petrobras and Esteves’s lawyer didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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