MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petrobras, Latam's second largest corp., says Goldman Sachs

Brazil's government managed oil and gas corporation Petrobras is among the world's top five energy sector leaders and is the second biggest company in Latin America, according to studies published by Goldman Sachs and by América-Economía magazine.

Goldman Sachs report took into account return on capital, position in the industry, and environmental, social and corporate governance commitments. AméricaEconomía arrived to the conclusion following the financial information assessment of 500 leading companies in the region. AméricaEconomía magazine ranks Petrobras behind Mexico's Pemex and ahead of Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA. The publication says Petrobras rose from third to second position following a 12% increase in sales last year, totaling 96.3 billion US dollars. Petrobras Distribuidora ranked 7th. According to the magazine if Petrobras maintains the average growth rate of the last ten years, 18.63%, in 2008, she will become the biggest company in sales in Latin America. Goldman Sachs highlights Petrobras' strong growth prospects following discoveries in the pre-salt layer and forecasts one of the biggest cash flow growths in the sector in the upcoming decade. Petrobras financial return history is also one the industry's most impressive. Regarding environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) commitment the Petrobras System ranks among the best, according to Goldman Sachs. In the 2006 report, which assessed 26 companies, Petrobras had been listed among the top five leaders. This year, when the study analyzed a universe of 59 corporations, Petrobras and the BG Group were the only ones that remained in the top of the ranking. Other leaders are Schlumberger, Suncor, and Woodside.