SBM Offshore Shares Gain on Hopes of Brazilian Settlement

Shares in Dutch offshore oil industry services company SBM Offshore rose on Friday on a media report the company was close to settling a corruption probe with Brazilian authorities that has prevented it from bidding for work in a major market.

The shares rose as much as 5.5 percent to a 17-day high of 15.29 euros after oil and gas magazine Upstream published an article indicating a deal was near, analysts said.

SBM, which has been seeking a deal after being accused of paying bribes to executives of state-controlled oil company Petrobras, declined to comment.

If it reaches a deal, SBM would be well placed to win a tender for the first floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) platform for the giant Libra oil field offshore Brazil, KBC Securities analyst Tom Simonts said.

The tender is valued at 1-1.5 billion euros ($1.1-1.6 billion), according to Simonts.

Petrobras earlier this week delayed the Libra tender by two weeks to Jan. 31, seen by insiders as a signal an SBM settlement deal was close, according to ABN Amro analyst Wim Gille.

Petrobras appears to have been pushing the deadline back to involve SBM in the bidding process, Gille said, allowing for competition with Modec Inc, the only other player in the sector that can deliver FPSO platforms.

(Reporting by Wout Vergauwen)