Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) completed the acquisition of a controlling 51% stake in Brazilian oil and gas producer Brava Energia S.A. (B3: BRAV3) on August 18, 2026, closing a transaction the company said in a statement it valued at approximately $1.2 billion USD. The deal, carried out through Ecopetrol’s Brazilian subsidiary, Ecopetrol Investimentos do Brasil Ltda., gives Bogotá-based Ecopetrol control of a producer that reported 459 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in proved reserves as of December 31, 2025, and averaged 84,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day of production in June 2026.

The transaction closed through two mechanisms on Brazil’s B3 S.A. – Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão exchange. Ecopetrol’s subsidiary settled and paid for a voluntary tender offer, or Oferta Pública de Aquisição Voluntária (OPAV), that it had won at auction on August 5, 2026, acquiring 116,110,717 common shares of Brava — roughly 25% of the company’s outstanding capital — at $23.00 BRL (about $4.49 USD) per share. Separately, it completed a share purchase agreement signed April 23, 2026, with a group of Brava shareholders holding an additional 26% of the company’s stock. That private agreement had been contingent on the tender offer securing the first 25% stake, a condition the August 5, 2026, auction satisfied.

Ecopetrol disclosed in its August 5, 2026, auction-result announcement that it financed the purchase through an intercompany loan: Ecopetrol Capital AG, a Swiss subsidiary, extended the funds to Ecopetrol Investimentos do Brasil under a short-term bridge facility governed by New York law. The company said it intends to refinance the facility later through a combination of long-term debt and equity.

By Ecopetrol’s own accounting, the price implies approximately $8.4 USD per barrel of Brava’s proved (1P) reserves and $6.3 USD per barrel on a proved-plus-probable (2P) basis, which Brava reported at 605 mmboe as of December 31, 2025. On a production basis, the deal values Brava’s output at roughly $45,700 USD per barrel of daily production.

Brava, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, was formed in September 2024 through the merger of two independent Brazilian producers, 3R Petroleum Óleo e Gás S.A. and Enauta Participações S.A. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2026, the company reported revenue of approximately $2.341 billion USD, EBITDA of approximately $1.05 billion USD, and net income of approximately $122.2 million USD, according to its unaudited financial disclosures. Brazil’s antitrust authority, the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Econômica (CADE, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense), cleared the transaction without conditions in a decision that became final in mid-June 2026, according to Brazilian financial outlet InfoMoney.

Luis Felipe Henao, president of Ecopetrol’s board of directors, framed the acquisition as a way to diversify into a jurisdiction with more favorable tax treatment than Colombia. “I hope this will be a great deal for Ecopetrol. Brava adds very important reserves for Colombia, but there is something very important here: it consolidates a market Ecopetrol was already working in. Brazil has a better tax rate and better taxes than Colombia does, which is why returns can be higher in that country,” Henao told La República as the transaction neared its close.

The purchase adds to Ecopetrol’s existing exploration and production interests in the United States’ Permian Basin and Gulf of Mexico and in Mexico. Colombia’s national government owns roughly 88% of Ecopetrol; the remainder trades on the Colombian and New York exchanges.

The deal closed weeks into a leadership transition at Ecopetrol that coincided with Colombia’s own change of government: Abelardo de la Espriella was inaugurated president August 7, 2026, succeeding Gustavo Petro. Ricardo Roa Barragán, Ecopetrol’s former president, left the company July 30, 2026. Colombia’s Fiscalía General de la Nación (Attorney General’s Office) had charged Roa in March 2026 with influence trafficking over a Bogotá apartment purchase and filed a formal indictment on that charge in June 2026, according to Infobae; separately, prosecutors charged him in May 2026 with violating campaign-spending limits tied to Gustavo Petro’s 2022 presidential campaign, which Roa managed, according to a separate Infobae report. Roa has denied wrongdoing. Juan Carlos Hurtado Parra has served as Ecopetrol’s interim president since July 31, 2026, while the company’s board searches for a permanent successor.

Photo: Brava Energy (LinkedIn)

To begin, there will be two routes offered on LATAM:

• • • Orlando to Bogotá (LATAM)
    • São Paulo to Los Angeles (LATAM)

According to the airlines, the latter new addition to the Chilean airline’s portfolio will be the only direct route between Brazil and the US West Coast.

Several new flights will begin on October 29:

• • • Medellín to Miami (LATAM)
    • Lima to Atlanta (LATAM)
    • Bogotá to Atlanta (Delta)

The route between Delta’s hub in Atlanta and the Colombian capital is not a new route, but does mark a second flight between the destinations for the US carrier.

Later this year, in December, Delta will also offer two “seasonal” routes:

In December, the announcements will continue with the inauguration of the new seasonal route

• • • Rio de Janeiro to New York (Delta)
    • Cartagena to Atlanta (Delta)

The two airlines announced the new flights while also marking he first year of their joint venture, which includes shared lounge access and miles-earning benefits.

A growth in connectivity between Atlanta and Latin America has been been one of the main outcomes of Delta partnering with LATAM.

“In Atlanta, Delta’s main hub and the largest in the world, the alliance reached another important milestone by approaching nearly one million seats offered on 3,500 flights to South America,” said the airlines in a statement. “This growth was driven by a 50% capacity increase on key routes connecting to LATAM’s hubs in São Paulo, Brazil, Bogotá, Colombia, Lima, Peru, and Santiago.”

They also touted significant capacity growth in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

(Photo credit: LATAM)

The Colombian airline’s growth comes in a context of global disruptions for the air travel industry. According to an estimate by Boeing, global air travel will only return to pre-pandemic levels by 2024 as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to hit the industry. Lockdowns, stricter health protocols and mobility restrictions heavily impacted consumer confidence, which has yet to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic.

The numbers illustrate this issue clearly: global air travel demand went down by 58.4% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. In this context, Viva continues to perform as one of the few airlines in the world to achieve positive results this year.

“The authorized routes will offer a new range of possibilities to air transport users to find more alternatives within the market, provide more connection points within and outside the country and ratify the commitment of the national government to support the economic reactivation of the sectors derived from air activity, which already reaches 20 million passengers mobilized and is expected to reach 30 million by the end of 2021,” said Camilo Pabón Almanza, Colombia’s vice-minister of transportation.

The company keeps betting on its low-cost model to expand operations through its hub in Medellín. Starting in November, Viva will increase flights from Medellín to Miami to 14 per week, Medellín to Lima and Medellín to Mexico City, both with one daily flight, Medellín to Cancún with five daily flights, and Medellín to Orlando with three weekly flights. These add to the already existing 32 routes to beach towns such as San Andrés, Cartagena, Barranquilla y Santa Marta.

Colombian civil aviation authority Aerocivil had already approved Viva flights from Bogotá and Medellín to Cordoba and Buenos Aires in Argentina; Santiago de Chile and Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, more than doubling Viva’s international reach. Now, the airline has received approval for 65 new international routes, as well as new domestic routes.

“On behalf of the aviation authority, we will continue to be committed to reactivating air transport, allowing connectivity between different parts of our country and the country with the world. With this, we seek to offer more and more alternatives for the benefit of users and the possibility of providing better connectivity opportunities,” said Jair Orlando Fajardo, Aerocivil’s director.

Approved New International Routes

Cali Flights To Cancún & México City

Today, Viva also announced that it is launching international flights between Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, and the Mexican destinations of Cancún and México City beginning March, 2022. These will be Viva’s first international routes to and from Cali’s Alfonso Bonilla Aragon airport in the suburb of Palmira. Viva says that its entry into the market for Cali-México routes should cause an overall reduction in airfares between these destinations of up to 35%. The low-cost carrier also indicated that it expects to carry 100,000 passengers on these new routes in its first 12 months of operations.

Viva President Félix Antelo

Tickets have already gone on sale via Viva’s website, and flights between Cali and Cancún will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays beginning March 22, 2022. Routes between Cali and México City will run Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays beginning March 23.

“Cali is an essential part of the Viva destination network and our commitment to this city is strong. That’s why we have added to our offering these two new direct international routes to México City and Cancún, expanding connectivity from Cali to two new destinations. Since opening (Cancún & México City routes) in August, they have had an excellent reception from Colombian travelers who now know that with Viva they can travel internationally at super low cost,” stated Félix Antelo, President & CEO of Grupo Viva.

A Plethora Of New Domestic Routes Approved

In addition to the 65 new international routes that Aerocivil approved for Viva, they also approved the following domestic routes. Though these routes have been approved by regulatory authorities, Viva has made no official announcement of any of these new routes nor have they released a schedule. They are currently taking periodic deliveries from Airbus on an order of 50 new A320neo aircraft.

Certain routes are interesting in light of Avianca’s recent tie up with Colombian competitor EasyFly, a domestic airline that specializes in flying to smaller cities. For example, Easyfly had the Bucaramanga Cúcuta route to itself, and now may codeshare with Avianca, as Avianca is releasing its ATR72 turboprop fleet. Now Viva will compete directly on these short-haul routes such as Armenia – Medellín (160 miles) or Bucaramanga – Cúcuta (122 miles). In much of Colombia’s mountainous terrain, road travel can take many hours, making air travel a much more feasible alternative. For example, Medellín to Bogotá is only 257 miles away but can take 10 hours-if there are no traffic jams, mudslides, or accidents along the way. On the other hand, a flight is 40 minutes and usually costs less than ground travel anyway.

Approved New Domestic Routes

Photos: Loren Moss except Felix Antelo, courtesy Viva

In addition to the new routes which would more than double Viva’s international reach, the Medellín-based airline has also filed for authorization to add domestic routes from Bucaramanga, Colombia to the Caribbean destinations of San Andrés, Cartagena and Barranquilla; and flights from the border city of Cúcuta to Cartagena and San Andrés.

Viva has not yet announced these routes, and Aerocivil has yet to issue final approval. Neither has confirmation been received from the destination countries. Generally, negotiations have taken place before authorization is filed.

Viva Air CEO Felix Antelo (pictured above), a native of Argentina himself, has stated publicly that the airline expects to connect North & South America “from Buenos Aires to New York” through its Medellín hub.

When contacted by Finance Colombia, a Viva spokesperson said “The request for new routes that Viva made is part of the pool of destinations that we evaluate as an airline conforming to our plan of expansion and internationalization. As the leading low-cost airline in the region, this request is part of our ‘Hub Medellín’ project which seeks to make this city our principal connection center.  These are some of the approximately 15 routes that we are exploring under our 3-year expansion plan.”

JC Decaux provides outdoor advertising, such as on bus stops like this. (Photo courtesy JC Decaux)

This contract covers the design, installation, operation and maintenance of more than 6,000 street furniture displays for bus shelters: digital city information panels with maps, information, local route guidance, and bus information. Installation will take place from 2021 to 2024, though JCDecaux expects to begin upgrading the 3,310 existing bus shelters in July of this year.

Some bus shelters will be equipped with photovoltaic roofs and LED technology to reduce electricity consumption by up to 60%. JCDecaux will operate more than 3,300 street furniture advertising faces in Bogota, bringing their total to more than 5,200 in Colombia, across 8 major cities in the country for its street furniture, in addition to its portfolio of billboards (over 105 displays) and a presence in Bogota International Airport.

“We are very proud to have been chosen by the Capital and largest city in Colombia, Bogota, as its partner for its street furniture program. The city and its inhabitants will benefit from high-quality and durable bus shelters and highly innovative services such as smart digital city information panels. By delivering premium sites with even broader coverage, we are able to meet the needs of brands and their communication strategies as well as the expectation of Bogota,” said Jean-Charles Decaux, Co-CEO of JCDecaux.

“As number one in street furniture in Colombia, our subsidiary has a key strategic position in the country. This contract will strengthen our presence in the biggest cities in Latin America, including São Paulo, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Santiago and now Bogota as well as our position as Latin America’s number one for outdoor advertising.”

For Uber, we had detected this potential in 2013, and as we began our rapid global expansion to eventually over 60 nations, we chose Bogotá to be our first step into South America. Our services were quickly embraced by their tech-savvy citizens, and the flexible earnings potential of driving with Uber were welcomed quickly by drivers who appreciated a new way to earn a living. A living that, according to a 2019 profile by the Inter-American Development Bank, represented on-average nearly three times Colombia’s minimum hourly wage.

The popularity of the service grew widely across Colombia, and six years later we had expanded across the nation to 88,000 drivers serving two million regular riders. Because of the mass local adoption of the service, the rich local talent pool, and the optimistic economic outlook for the nation, Uber invested heavily. We opened our regional headquarters in Bogotá, and staffed it with over three hundred full time employees—most of whom are Colombian home-grown talent. In 2019, we selected Bogotá as the destination for our third Center of Excellence in Latin America, and we excitedly poised to directly invest USD $40 million and create 600 new direct jobs.

Justin Kintz is Über’s vice president for global public policy

However, by the end of 2019, it was evident we were lacking even the most basic institutional support from the Colombian government for making such a massive investment in the nation. Despite the fact that Uber Colombia was the first such service in South America, it still had been the last to be licensed and regulated by the national government. In the meantime, our industry had over 80 governments across Latin America proceed ahead sensible licensing, including cities like Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and La Paz, states like Mendoza and Jalisco, and entire nations like Brazil, Peru and Chile. (Relatedly, in this same time period, dozens of nations worldwide had established their own rideshare rules in short order.) Despite the Duque administration’s public push to move Colombia into an “Orange Economy” that embraces the digital sector, Uber’s investments instead were treated with ambivalence.

For many years, Uber has advocated for ridesharing regulations in Colombia that were designed to protect the public with safety standards and pricing transparency and to formalize the economy with driver licensing and taxation. Uber even advocated strongly for plans to provide hardship relief to the Colombian taxi industry in the event their drivers struggled in a period of changing consumer trends. To ensure we were practicing what we were preaching, Uber went so far as to self-regulate and collect and remit appropriate taxes despite lacking the governmental mandates, and despite the government not equally enforcing tax on our rideshare competitors or taxis. This was done at great cost to Uber in order to maintain our safety standards at a consistent global level, to create a good example for our entire industry, and to support Colombian communities. Notably, Uber’s services to-date have helped generate roughly 130 billion Colombian pesos (roughly USD $40 million) in revenue for the government.

The calls for regulation had been ignored. Recognizing the fragility of the investment environment, Uber announced in late 2019 that we would not be opening our Center of Excellence in Bogotá, and will be forced to find a different regional destination. This bad news was made much worse a few days before Christmas, when the Superintendency of Industry and Commerce ordered Uber Colombia to shut down, citing unfair competition with taxis. (Importantly, none of the other rideshare companies with nearly identical business models have received similar treatment.)

As Uber begins to close our ride services in Colombia (UberEATS continues food-delivery operations unaffected), we are aggrieved for the nearly ninety thousand drivers who lose this earning opportunity. We feel discouraged for the millions of users who rely on our services to remain mobile safely and conveniently. We are disappointed to see such a step backwards for a nation otherwise poised to move forward. The spirit of the people of Colombia is clearly ready to break out from behind the limits of protectionism and cronyism, and its political leaders have said the right things. This debate provides a real opportunity for those leaders to actually apply the promises they have made, otherwise, it may create a chilling effect on investment and innovation for many years to come. Colombia needs #UnaSolucionParaUberYa.

Editor’s note: Finance Colombia reached out to Colombia’s Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio to give them a chance to submit their position. As of press time, we received this statement: “Las decisiones de los trámites y los procesos adelantados por la Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio serán adoptadas dentro de los términos estipulados en las disposiciones legales que los regulen, atendiendo el debido proceso.” (The decisions of the formalities and processes put forward by the Superintendence of Industry & Commerce will be adopted within the terms stipulated in the legal dispositions that regulate it, attending due process.)

Photo courtesy of Über

This is a guest editorial and does not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of Finance Colombia. 

This comes as Uber has announced plans to abandon Colombia and the Duque Administration moves to liquidate local alternative Picap, just a day after it ruled against Uber. Very popular with both riders and drivers, the government, backed by taxi syndicates ruled such platforms “unfair competition” because they interfere with the taxi monopoly. Colombians and foreigners alike mistrust the taxis, especially in the capital of Bogotá where they suffer an infamous reputation. In November,  an organized crime ring of taxi drivers was captured for robbing foreigners in the city center of over $140,000 USD.

In 2014, seven Bogotá taxi drivers were extradited to the US for murdering an off-duty DEA officer in a botched robbery attempt.

Taxi union leader Hugo Ospina already declared war on the scooters after winning a court ruling against Uber last month. “We are going to sue the technology platforms that the state declared illegal!” said Ospina in a radio show last month by Semana magazine.

Ospina said proudly in a video he published on Facebook that the administration of President Ivan Duque agreed to prosecute Uber in a deal that the taxi syndicates would not join the November anti-government protests in exchange for Duque doing their bidding regarding alternative mobility such as Uber, Picap, Lime, and others.

According to Lime they faced difficult operating conditions in Bogotá even without Ospina’s threats. “The district did excellent work in designing the first version of regulations. Still, we are concerned that other companies aren’t following the laws, and the district (of Bogotá) hasn’t taken action. All of that is causing illegal scooters to circulate,” Lime general manager for Colombia Enrique Cuéllar told news daily El Espectador.

Lime’s CEO Brad Bao stated in a blog post that the company was leaving Bogotá along with 12 other markets, roughly 10% of the 120+ cities where the scooter company operates:

“While the vast majority of our 120+ markets have adopted micromobility transportation solutions quickly and are profitable, there are select communities throughout the world where micromobility has evolved more slowly. For this reason, we have made the difficult decision to close 12 markets across the globe at this time. They include Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego and San Antonio in the United States; Linz, Austria in Europe; and Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, Puerto Vallarta, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Latin America.”

See also: Guest Opinion: A Signal of Caution For Direct Investment in Colombia—Über VP of Global Public Policy

Above photo courtesy Lime

Aside from operations in Brasil, Colombia and Ecuador, the reinsurer already operates in Peru and Panama, and is awaiting authorizations in Mexico, Argentina and Paraguay.

Austral Re’s decision to enter these new markets was based on the economic and geographic potential of Latin America, where reinsurance premiums reached $21 billion in 2014, with 84% of that total from outside Brasil. While other Latin American markets represent a growth opportunity, Brasil is struggling with a recessionary economy and pessimistic consumer sentiment.

Bruno Freire, CEO of Austral Re (pictured above) has stated that despite representing nearly 50% of insurance premiums in the region, Brasil has well capitalized insurers and little exposure to natural disasters: important factors to explain the low penetration of reinsurance in the country. “In many Latin American countries the ability to retain risk by insurers is not as large as in Brasil, generating demand for reinsurance, particularly facultative contracts,” he says.

According to Freire, the reinsurer’s investment in technology to develop new products, especially in agricultural risks, surety, life and health lines, should result in a competitive advantage with regard to winning market share in the countries it is entering. Freire expects 20% of revenues to come from outside of Brasil in the next three years, compared to 8% today.

Insurance ratings agency A.M. Best rates Austral Re’s financial strength at B++ (Good) and offers a credit issuer rating of bbb+ with a stable outlook.  According to A.M. Best, the ratings reflect Austral Re’s more than adequate risk-adjusted capitalization, comprehensive retrocessional program and the successful implementation thus far of the company’s business plan. Additionally, in its first years of operations, Austral Re has produced positive overall earnings driven by a steady stream of investment income, as well as positive underwriting income, which has allowed the company to grow surplus through retained earnings.

Negative rating drivers cited by the ratings firm with regard to Austral Re include a significant decline in risk-adjusted capital, poor operating results when compared to its peers, large losses and significant deterioration of the Brazilian economy or a sovereign downgrade that could negatively impact the company’s investment portfolio, premium growth and ability to pay claims.