Barclays Rates Venezuela Bonds at Market Weight, Prefers PDVSA

Barclays initiated coverage of Venezuelan and state-owned oil company PDVSA’s bonds at market weight, with a preference for high coupon PDVSA notes, according to a note by strategist Jason Keene and economist Alejandro Arreaza dated Feb. 10.

• “We think that VENZ and PDVSA bonds will ultimately be treated equally in an eventual restructuring. We therefore prefer PDVSA bonds, which generally trade at a discount to VENZ bonds”
• Barclays recommends buying PDVSA notes maturing in 2022, 2021 and 2035, as analysts see past due interests as overly discounted in the PDVSA curve
  • Any efforts to discriminate investors based on original issuer ...