Venezuela Changes Vebonos Rules, Keeps Exchange Rate
Written on May 30, 2009
Venezuela will change the rules governing the sale of local currency bonds known as Vebonos starting next week, and will follow the so-called Dutch auction format, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said.
Venezuela won’t allow any one financial institution to buy more than 5 percent of the total bonds sold, Rodriguez said in a government e-mailed statement. Rules affecting other Venezuelan bonds will remain unchanged, according to the statement.
In a Dutch auction, a company offers to repurchase a set number of shares within a given price range for a specified period of time.
Separately, Rodriguez said in a second statement today that the South American country doesn’t have any plans to implement a dual-exchange rate payday loans.
Such a rate would maintain the official one and add a higher one for importers. Venezuela implemented currency controls in 2003 following a two-month general strike that sapped international reserves.
The peg was raised to 2.15 bolivars per dollar in 2005 and President Hugo Chavez has praised the measure for protecting Venezuela against the current global financial crisis.
Filed in: finance.