Opinion – Elio Gaspari: Powerful shareholders of Americanas achieved a prodigy

Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Jorge Paulo Lemann and Marcel Telles, in that order, the three powerful shareholders of Americanas, achieved a prodigy: in a billionaire mess, they placed the banks in the position of sympathetic creditors.

They did this by underestimating the risk of a week’s silence and overestimating the power of their words in the note they signed last Sunday.

parental protection

At the height of the crisis of the attempted coup against his presidency in the Federation of Industries of São Paulo, there were days when Josué Gomes da Silva wore a baggy jacket for his measurements.

Once the critical phase of the blow is over, it can be seen that the jacket had its powers.

The piece belonged to his father, José Alencar, Vice President of the Republic during Lula’s first two terms. In difficult times, Joshua wears it.

Alencar died in 2011, aged 79, having left behind a memorable business and political legacy.

The Argentine Dead Cow

Lula passed like a hurricane through Buenos Aires and announced his government’s interest in investing in gas production from the Vaca Muerta reserve, in the north of Argentine Patagonia. Something of US$ 820 million that would come out of the good old BNDES.

Noves apart from the environmental issue and the feasibility of building a gas pipeline that connects to the national grid, one question remains. According to the Energy Research Company, of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, in 2030 Brazil will be able to produce 275 million cubic meters of natural gas.

Brazil has pre-salt reserves in its lap, which by 2030 could produce 5.5 million barrels of oil, demanding fantastic investments.

Argentine energy projects are famous for their durability. The one in Vaca Muerta is already 12 years old and includes the construction of a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline. Exploring this reserve seems like a good idea, but the gas from Vaca Muerta will compete with what Petrobras hopes to extract from the bottom of the sea.

The greatest danger is the risk of putting money into a project to make a good figure and, soon after, having to put more money in order for the project to go ahead.