CVM Clears Ecopetrol's Suspended Tender Offer for Control of Brava Energia

Brazil's securities regulator has accepted Ecopetrol's appeal against the suspension of its tender offer for control of Brava Energia, removing the last regulatory obstacle to a deal that would hand the Colombian state oil company 51% of the listed producer.

Brava Energia said on Thursday, July 16 that it had received notice of the appeal's acceptance by the Superintendence of Securities Registration of the Comissao de Valores Mobiliarios (CVM), in the context of the tender offer for control of the company. The report was filed by Camila Vech for Broadcast on July 16, 2026.

Ecopetrol lodged the appeal with the CVM's collegiate board on July 7, contesting a decision by the regulator's technical department that had suspended the share offer after it ordered changes to the transaction's public notice.

The offer document must now be amended to cover the technical department's remaining requirements and must set a new date for the auction, according to the terms of the CVM's consent. Market participants are waiting for Ecopetrol to publish a revised tender instrument detailing the reopening of the process and the new auction date, Portal Energia Limpa reported.

Ecopetrol's stated initial intention is to acquire roughly 26% of Brava's shares, with the final objective of raising that stake to 51% and securing control of the Brazilian company. If the offer succeeds, Ecopetrol will hold 51% of Brava's share capital.

The transaction was announced to the market at the end of May and won clearance from the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (Cade), Brazil's antitrust authority, in early June. The securities review proved the slower of the two hurdles, with the technical objections to the notice arriving after the competition file had already closed.

BTG estimates that by taking control of 51% of Brava, Ecopetrol will be able to consolidate the Brazilian company's reserves and supervise its operations. The bank also says the Colombian state company's long-term strategy behind the acquisition is not yet fully clear.

That combination of a defined control threshold and an undefined strategic rationale is what makes the file worth tracking beyond Brazil. Reserve consolidation is the mechanical prize: a controlling stake at 51% lets the acquirer book the target's barrels and direct its operating decisions. The route to it here ran through a two-stage acquisition design, starting at roughly 26% before the step up to control.

The procedural sequence is the second point of interest for cross-border acquirers. A state-owned buyer challenged a host-country securities regulator's technical staff before its collegiate board, and won. The remedy was not a reversal of the underlying requirements but a path to completing them: the notice still has to absorb the outstanding demands, and the auction still has to be rescheduled. That distinction matters for anyone modelling deal timelines in a jurisdiction where the antitrust and securities tracks run separately, as they did here, with Cade signing off in early June while the offer sat suspended.

The reporting on the appeal's acceptance was published by Portal Energia Limpa on July 16, 2026, in an article by Luzia Aires. Until the amended instrument appears, the auction date remains the open item.