Key facts
- Signum chairman Charles Myers said he does not expect Democratic control of Congress to change the US relationship with Venezuela.
- The delegation includes oil and gas, infrastructure and chemicals investors, bondholders and emerging-market investors from the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.
- Investors plan to meet Rodriguez government officials, central bank and PDVSA representatives and private-sector CEOs, Myers said.
- Myers said the group also plans to visit the Caracas Stock Exchange to gauge liquidity and governance for buying Venezuelan equities.
- Myers said the biggest opportunity remains in oil and gas and related infrastructure.
- Machado has criticized an agreement between the US and producer NABEP to control about a fifth of Venezuela's oil reserves.
Signum Global Advisors is taking 65 investors to Caracas on Sunday, November 15, its second visit to Venezuela since US forces removed Nicolas Maduro from power in January, the firm's chairman and founder Charles Myers told Reuters on Thursday.
The trip comes less than two weeks after Democrats won control of the US Congress in midterm elections. Myers said he did not expect Democratic control of Congress to change the nature of the relationship between the US and Venezuela, which he called excellent, and that any future US administration would want Venezuela to succeed.
Myers said Signum's view is that Venezuela will likely transition to democracy before the 2028 US presidential election, and that interim President Delcy Rodriguez's administration has improved security and conditions for investors. In January, Venezuela's National Assembly approved a reform of the country's main oil law that allows companies increased autonomy to operate oil and gas projects.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado said in September that only a serious, democratic government can provide the stability investors need. Since returning to Venezuela in October, she has promised to review contracts and criticized an agreement between the US and producer NABEP to control about a fifth of the country's oil reserves. Myers said it was likely too early for his group to meet opposition leaders.
The delegation includes oil and gas, infrastructure and chemicals investors, as well as bondholders and emerging-market investors from the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. They plan to meet top officials in Rodriguez's government, representatives of the central bank and state oil company PDVSA, and private-sector CEOs, Myers said, declining to name them citing security and client privacy. The group also plans to visit the Caracas Stock Exchange to gauge liquidity, learn which companies are traded and see whether governance is in place to buy Venezuelan equities.