BNDES closes out its stake in miner Vale, raising $2bn

Brazilian development bank BNDES has closed out its stake in miner Vale, selling 188.5 million shares and raising around BRL11 billion ($2 billion).

The sale of the 3.6% stake in the miner, carried out by the bank’s equity arm BNDESPar, comes as BNDES seeks to exit its position in various companies as part of a broader government divestment plan. In November, a similar sale of Vale stock raised BRL2.54 billion.

Sources said that BNDES was still eager to reduce its holdings in state-run oil company Petrobras, but those plans had been shelved after the stock plummeted on President Jair Bolsonaro’s move to appoint a new chief executive.