Goldman Sachs bought last week around US$2.8 billion bonds issued by Venezuela’s embattled state oil firm PDVSA, betting that a change in the Venezuelan regime could more than double the value of debt, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing five people familiar with the deal. According to the people in the know, last week Goldman’s asset management division paid US$0.31 on the dollar, or around US$865 million, for bonds that PDVSA issued in 2014 and that mature in 2022. The bonds had been held by the central bank of Venezuela, according to The Journal. Due to Venezuela’s risk of default, bonds trade at deeply discounted rates and yields are juicy, at around 30 percent. Goldman’s bond purchase is part of a strategy to increase positions in Venezuelan holdings, The Journal’s sources said. The U.S. bank hadn’t negotiated the bond purchase directly with the Venezuelan government, rather, it […]