The Colombian government plans to “gradually” sell as much as 10% of the stake it owns in the state-controlled oil company Ecopetrol SA to finance construction of new roads in the country, President Alvaro Uribe‘s press office said in a statement.
The Colombian government approved a 10-trillion-Colombian-pesos (US$5.23 billion) plan to build new highways and upgrade existing roads between 2011 and 2021, the statement said.
The money would come from the central government and local governments.
To keep debt at sustainable levels, the government plans to raise money from the sale of as much as 10% of its stake in Ecopetrol.
The Colombian state owns 89.9% of Ecopetrol, and the remainder floats on the local stock market.
Shares of Ecopetrol were down 1.1% to COP2,670 at 11.44 a.m. EDT, while the IGBC stock index was up 0.3%. (Dow Jones)