Lula’s minister denies intervention on Petrobras dividends and praises CEO

Since Petrobras (PETR4) decided not to distribute extraordinary dividends, the company’s shares fell from the level of R$ 42 to R$ 35 and, this Wednesday (3), they are worth R$ 38.40, operating with a drop of 0.5%.

In addition to the change in the strategy for distributing the proceeds, another issue has been worrying investors: rumors of the departure of the company’s CEO, Jean Paul Prates.

According to the panel of Sheet, since the “extraordinary dividend crisis”, names have circulated as “potential replacements”. Among them would be Bruno Moretti, current special secretary for government analysis of the presidency, linked to the chief minister of the civil house, Rui Costa, and Magda Chambriard, who previously worked at the state-owned company, before becoming president of the ANP.

Lula’s minister defends CEO of Petrobras (PETR4)

In an interview today with Globonews, Lula’s Chief of Staff, Rui Costa, stated that “Jean Paul Prates and the Petrobras board have done a good job”, reinforcing that Petrobras’ decision to withhold extraordinary dividends has nothing to do with with government intervention.

“There was a technical opinion saying that at that time the distribution of extraordinary dividends would be excessive risk appetite, which indicated prudence, greater care,” said the minister.

“So the Council followed Petrobras’ technical opinion. It has nothing to do with government intervention.”

Rui Costa’s observations are in line with the statements of the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, who again this week rejected the criticism made by the market due to the episode regarding the distribution of extraordinary dividends from Petrobras.

Silveira considered it a distortion for the government to be classified as interventionist because of the case.

“We did nothing more than exercise our right to discuss with our advisors appointed by the government, within the law, respecting the governance of Petrobras and its legal nature, the correct allocation of extraordinary dividends”, he said, during the interview.

(With Reuters and Estadão Conteúdo)