OIL

Brazil’s state oil company Petrobras expects exploration of an Iranian block will yield disappointing results, a company director said, adding another Iranian block has shown similarly dim prospects (Reuters).

Petrobras also said it put up the winning bids for blocks 3 and 4 in Uruguay’s exploration and production bidding round for oil and gas (Reuters).

Petrobras has secured financing to cover its aggressive $174 billion investment plan through 2013, financial director Almir Barbassa said. Financing secured by the company includes 25 billion reais ($12.81 billion) from Brazil’s BNDES development bank, $6.5 billion from a pool of banks, $2 billion from the U.S. Exim Bank and $10 billion from the China Development Bank (Reuters).

Petrobras found more evidence of oil in an onshore block in the country’s Espirito Santo Basin, the Brazilian petroleum regulator said. The discovery was made at well 4BRSA742ES in the ES-T-382 block, the National Petroleum Agency said on its Web site. The Jacutinga field in the same block was declared a commercial find in a filing dated Jan. 3, 2008 (Bloomberg).

ECONOMY

Brazil’s economy will shrink 0.50 percent in 2009, less than the previous forecast for a 0.57 percent drop, according to the median forecast in a June 26 central bank survey of about 100 economists (Bloomberg).

INVESTMENT

Italian tire group Pirelli & C SpA will invest around $200 million in Brazil through 2011, betting on a swift and robust rebound in Latin America’s largest economy, the company said (Reuters).

RETAIL

New automobile sales in Brazil soared 21.5 percent in June from May, turning in a record month as a combination of tax breaks, lower prices and improved confidence prompted consumers to flock to showrooms, the national dealers’ association, Fenabrave, said (Reuters).

MEAT

Brazilian processed foods company Perdigao said that the European Commission had approved its takeover of local rival Sadia, paving the way for the creation of a multinational that will control a quarter of the world’s poultry market (Reuters).

BANKING & FINANCE

Brazil’s second-largest private-sector bank, Bradesco, is in talks to buy a minority stake in insurer Porto Seguro seeking to prevent rivals from gaining a foothold in the last independent insurer in the country, a local newspaper reported (Reuters).

Brazilian banks are “well- positioned” to weather the recession and falling interest rates, which will pressure profit margins, Fitch Ratings said. “Proactive measures” by the government have helped offset liquidity concerns, and banks should pass through the global financial crisis without a negative effect on their ratings. Slowing loan growth and record-low interest rates will lead to narrower margins this year and beyond (Bloomberg).

Banco do Brasil  has the capacity to lend an additional 80 billion reais ($41 billion) this year, bank President Aldemir Bendine told O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. The Brasilia-based bank will probably resume talks to buy regional lender Banestes SA – Banco do Estado do Espirito Santo, Bendine told the newspaper, without providing a timeline. The bank is also negotiating the purchase of BRB Banco de Brasilia SA (Bloomberg).

BUSINESS

Germany’s Celesio has acquired a majority stake in Brazil’s largest drugs distributor Panpharma, Europe’s biggest drugs distributor said (Reuters).

SOCCER

Brazil is seeking a $1 billion loan from the Inter-American Development Bank for the 12 cities that will host the World Cup in 2014, Tourism Minister Luiz Eduardo Pereira Barreto Filho said (Bloomberg).