... pop some popcorn, grab a comfy chair, and enjoy the fun (from Dow Jones):
Venezuela will take further steps so that state-oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDV) and its US subsidiary Citgo will stop dealing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the country's oil minister said Thursday."As a state company we cannot be subject to the legal obligations of foreign countries used to protect bondholders," Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters during a visit to Congress. "Citgo will also stay out" of giving the SEC any information, he said.
The government, he said, is working to have private banks buy off the Citgo debt held by individual bondholders at slightly more attractive conditions for the oil-rich country.
Some of the outstanding debt has oil supply contracts as collateral and that would no longer be the case when the debt is held by private banks, he said. Ramirez said laws to protect investors are all well and good but Citgo and PDV don't want to be subject to individual investors.
"In the past these companies were in essence in the hands of US bondholders. We don't want that," he noted.
Venezuela has made similar changes to its debt for PDV as a way to free the company from any constraints imposed by the SEC and from the need to report its performance to the US regulatory agency.
PDV must still present its 2004 financial results to the SEC by the end of the month, but that will be the last report the agency will receive, Ramirez said.
The minister said the government is looking to create a public event every year to make a presentation of the company's results so as to inform Venezuelans and all others interested in the company.
A titanic struggle between nothing but thieving, lying bad guys!
