(Bloomberg) -- Ecopetrol SA is once again testing the overseas market with a $1.75 billion bond sale. The offering comes a week after an investigation involving its chief executive officer drove the company to postpone a deal.
Colombia’s state energy firm sold notes maturing in 2032 priced to yield 7.8%. The proceeds will fund the repurchase of bonds due in 2026 and repay a portion of a 2030 loan. Last week’s issuance was expected to price around 7.65%, according to people people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.
Separately, Ecopetrol said Wednesday that it would offer a premium to repurchase as much as $1.25 billion of the 2026 bonds.
“Coming back to the market so quickly might signal that investors were more sanguine about political headlines than bankers thought,” said Roger Horn, senior emerging-market strategist at Mariva Capital Markets. “It’s nice to see the market is indeed open to a traditional quasi-sovereign oil company after all.”
The bond offering first hit the market on a Tuesday, Oct. 8, for the same amount. Later that same day, Colombia’s electoral council voted to start a probe into an alleged breach of campaign finance limits during Gustavo Petro’s run for president in 2022. By Thursday, Ecopetrol’s offering was scuttled.
The case involves Petro and Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa, who managed the campaign before joining the company. A separate investigation from the Attorney General’s office of Roa and Petro’s son Nicolás is ongoing.
Ecopetrol declined to comment. BBVA Securities Inc., JPMorgan Securities and Santander US Capital Markets managed the new deal.
The Colombian driller said last week it was using a $250 million credit with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and an equal amount of its own cash to pay off half of the $1 billion loan due in 2030.
--With assistance from Michael Gambale and Brian J. Smith.
(Updates with pricing details in second paragraph.)
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