By Rogerio Jelmayer and Paul Kiernan
SÃO PAULO--Brazil's federal tax authority filed a series of new
tax claims against state-run energy company Petróleo Brasileiro SA,
or Petrobras, between October and January, underscoring a recent
surge in possible liabilities from the company's legal and tax
disputes.
Petrobras is challenging five tax assessments that total 8.77
billion Brazilian reais ($3.74 billion), according to a prospectus
the company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
on Monday.
It wasn't clear whether the new claims were included in the
BRL71.2 billion of "contingent" tax liabilities reported by
Petrobras at the end of 2013, a figure that itself was up 41% from
a year earlier. The firm couldn't immediately comment.
In the prospectus, Petrobras said it has presented its defense
against each of the claims and is awaiting judgment. The company
considers the chance of losses to be "possible, but not probable,
and accordingly we have not established any provision."
But that doesn't mean investors should brush the claims off. In
November, Brazilian mining titan Vale SA settled a similar series
of disputes over taxes on its foreign operations after authorities
offered the company a discount on interest and penalties.
Vale agreed to pay BRL22.33 billion, contributing to a record
$6.45 billion net loss in the fourth quarter. It managed to
minimize the deal's future impact by paying a portion of the taxes
up front and extending the rest over 15 years.
Petrobras's shares fell 2.3% Monday despite the bond sale and
recently traded down 0.3% at BRL12.97, on track for its lowest
close since 2005.
The latest tax assessments against Petrobras date to 2009. They
include financial-transactions taxes for intercompany loans among
Petrobras subsidiaries, taxes on the affreightment of oil
platforms, taxes on profits by certain subsidiaries headquartered
abroad, and social-security contributions on some employee
benefits.
Luana Helsinger, an analyst at GBM in Rio de Janeiro, said
Petrobras will likely end up paying some, but not all, of the back
taxes.
"The tax agency isn't going to forget about 8.8 billion reais,
but I can't quite imagine the entire amount being paid," Ms.
Helsinger said. She noted that Petrobras is already being forced by
the government to subsidize gasoline prices and develop hugely
expensive oil fields off Brazil's coast. "Petrobras has a lot of
bargaining power."
Write to Rogerio Jelmayer at rogerio.jelmayer@wsj.com and Paul
Kiernan at paul.kiernan@wsj.com