Petrotrin raises US$850M on bond market

The Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago (Petrotrin) raised US$850 million Tuesday on the international bond market.

The transaction, which was handled by Credit Suisse and JP Morgan, offered a return of 9.75 per cent on the investment.

The state-owned company will use the money for its development program. The upgrades include the completion of its Clean Fuels program, the construction of five new plants and the upgrade of an existing one.

Petrotrin suffered an after tax loss of $TT600 million last year.

In July, Moody's Investors Service downgraded Petrotrin's ratings to Baa3. In the same month, Standard & Poor's (S&P) also lowered its rating on the company to 'BBB' from 'BBB+'.