JANUARY 12, 2005

Petrobras banking on Williams

Petrobras has announced that it is increasing is sponsorship activities by 30% and plans to invest $16m in sports sponsorships, although this goes up to $21m when added to sponsorship which is coming from the Petrobras subsidiary Petrobras Distribuidora (BR). The company has cut back considerably on its activities in handball, surfing and Rio de Janeiro soccer team Flamengo and we believe that most of this money has gone into the Williams F1 deal which is estimated to be worth at least $10m. Being a state company Petrobras is bound to give details of its promotional budgets but it is not giving details of how much is being spent on each sport. However the local media says that Williams will get around half of the full budget.