Refiner Citgo set to open data room for bidders tied to court auction

Citgo Petroleum , the Venezuela-owned oil refiner, is set to open a data room in coming days to provide operational and financial information to bidders under a court-ordered auction that could lead to new ownership, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Citgo Petroleum , the Venezuela-owned oil refiner, is set to open a data room in coming days to provide operational and financial information to bidders under a court-ordered auction that could lead to new ownership, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. A U.S. federal court last year launched an auction of shares in a parent of the Houston-based refiner to satisfy $21.3 billion in judgments for Venezuela's past expropriations and debt defaults. The auction is due to wrap up this year and could put the seventh-largest U.S. refiner by processing volume in the hands of rivals or investors.

Management presentations began this week and the formal data room will open at Citgo's headquarters, the people said. The meetings kicked off a 45-day second bidding round that will consider only binding offers. Citgo wants to restrict data room access to serious bidders and plans to press the issue this week with the court official organizing the auction, one of the people said.

A Citgo spokesperson and a representative for the court official declined to comment. Investment bank Evercore Group, which is overseeing the auction's marketing, did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. Marshals Service on Wednesday notified the court it had received creditors' writs of attachments, which would allow the court to establish a final list of those who can cash proceeds from the auction. The judge set a March 28 deadline for any objections to the writs.

Citgo is Venezuela's foreign crown jewel with three U.S. refineries, pipelines, oil storage terminals and a retail distribution network that spans nearly half of the United States. It earned $2 billion last year. About 30 parties signed confidentiality agreements and received preliminary marketing information and a Citgo financial model as part of the first bidding round, and 12 submitted indications of interest in January, the court official leading the process, Robert Pincus, has said.

That first round drew some creditors in the Delaware court case who wanted to place credit bids, using the value of their claims against Venezuela as part of their offer for the shares.

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