Union puts pressure on Eletrobras shareholders’ meeting to try to expand decision-making power

247 – The Eletrobras Shareholders’ Meeting, held in a hybrid format this Friday, was the scene of clashes between representatives of the company and the government, BNDES and Previ, the pension fund for Banco do Brasil employees. According to the newspaper O Globo, government representatives asked Eletrobras for information about which institutions from the “União group” were participating in the meeting and what the volume of shares of each of these entities would be, alleging the need for transparency in the voting process. However, the company refused to provide such information, citing confidentiality.

Ivo Timbó, representative of the Union and attorney for the National Treasury, expressed his perplexity at the lack of clarity regarding the company’s characterization of the Union, questioning whether it was considered as a “political entity” or as part of a “group”. The Union, which holds 43% of the company’s capital after privatization under the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, saw its voting powers limited to a 10% share. Government representatives highlighted the importance of understanding how the votes of each institution would be counted, considering that the Union, as a political entity, has a restricted voting weight.

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Tiago Tadeu Silva, representative of BNDES, and Matheus Assis, representative of Previ, endorsed the Union’s concerns, requesting transparency regarding the counting of votes from the União group.

However, the chairman of the panel denied the requests, citing confidentiality issues, and stated that the information would be made available privately to each participant. This refusal generated new questions from Union representatives, who expressed the need to monitor the company’s operations and understand how the votes were being computed.

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The chairman of the panel explained that several entities are part of the “Union group”, including the Federal Union, BNDES, BNDESPar, FND, FGHAB, Bancos do Nordeste, BB DTVM, Caixa DTVM, Petros and Previ. However, the adjusted proportion of the União group would not exceed 10%.

The vote on the agenda revealed the opposition between the government and the company, with the Union rejecting the proposal for the allocation of results and the setting of the administrators’ global annual remuneration. Eletrobras had informed that it will distribute R$1.296 billion in dividends for 2023, 39% higher than the R$863.4 million paid in 2022. Furthermore, the Union’s nominees for the Fiscal Council were not approved.