OGX Advances Most in Three Days Since July on Petronas Report

OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA headed for its biggest three-day rally since July after Valor Economico reported that billionaire Eike Batista is in talks to sell a stake in the company to Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd, known as Petronas.

OGX advanced 3.7 percent to 3.71 reais at 3:02 p.m. in Sao Paulo after earlier surging as much as 8.9 percent. Shares have risen 17 percent over three days, the most since July 3. OGX was the most-traded stock by volume today on the benchmark Bovespa at 1.6 times the company’s three-month full-day average.

Batista, 56, is in negotiations to sell a stake in OGX to Petronas, said Valor, a Sao Paulo-based newspaper, without providing details or saying where it obtained the information. Azman Ibrahim, a Petronas spokesman, didn’t respond to an e-mail message from Bloomberg News after business hours. A press official at OGX in Rio de Janeiro declined to comment.

“The increase is a result of the rumors that he is trying to sell a piece,” Joao Pedro Brugger, who helps oversee about 250 million reais ($127 million) at Leme Investimentos Ltda. in Florianopolis, Brazil, said in a phone interview. “If he sells, it’s likely to be at a premium of the current share price.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at jspinetto@bloomberg.net; Julia Leite in New York at jleite3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Carlos Caminada at ccaminada1@bloomberg.net; David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net