Petrobras changes statute to sell subsidiaries without shareholder support

Petrobras changes bylaws in an assembly, in order to allow the state-owned company to dispose of refineries and other undertakings without needing the approval of the shareholders.

Petrobras approved in an Extraordinary General Meeting (AGE) this Thursday, April 25, the change in its bylaws to allow, among other things, the sale of control of subsidiaries to be approved directly by the Board of Directors, without needing the shareholder endorsement. Although the Union, which controls the state-owned company, has supported the change, around 25% of the shareholders voted against the change in the bylaws.

The section of the article that was amended by the shareholders provides for "bringing the authority to approve the sale of control of the share capital of wholly-owned subsidiaries to the Board of Directors".

According to the publication, the government took another step towards the privatization of Petrobras and did not hide that the objective of changing the statute is to speed up the process of selling the state-owned company's assets and reduce costs, since the convening of a meeting costs around R$ 1 million.

“We are concerned about this change. At a time when efforts are being made to combat corruption, and the Federal Supreme Court has not yet decided on the sale of subsidiaries, we are afraid, as this matter will only be left to the Board of Directors,” said Gerson Castellar, representative of the Federation Union of Oil Workers (FUP).

According to Marink Martins, from MyVOL, Roberto Castello Branco, is a kind of disciple of Murillo Ferreira, and seeks to do with Petrobras exactly what was done with Vale – to bring it back to its “core business”, which is exploration and production. The power to dispose of assets without the need for approval from shareholders' meetings is the catalyst that was missing for the transformational process to take place quickly and efficiently. It is possible that Petrobras, in a period of 3 years, will be another company, focusing on pre-salt exploration in a similar way to what Vale did with its S11D project. 

Carla Albano, Vale's IR executive who worked so hard with Roberto there, and who was at the forefront of the entire process of unifying Vale's shares, has just joined Petrobras' IR team.

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