Investors association calls for government transparency on Petrobras

Amec (Association of Investors in the Capital Market) demands transparency from the government and respect for the rules on disclosure of information by publicly-held companies in the debate on Petrobras’ fuel price policy.

The entity’s president, Fábio Coelho, recalls that both the State-owned Companies Law and the company’s statute allow its performance in the implementation of public policies of the controlling shareholder, but determine compensation for eventual losses.

“But it has to be something transparent”, he says. “The ideal is for the Union to clearly signal what the policy is. If there is this option, it has market consequences that could compromise Petrobras’ price and the planned investment policy itself.”

On Monday (7), the value of the company’s shares plummeted after President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) spoke of changing the import parity policy. Since then, the market has been living on rumors about the process, without any official communication from the company.

The options under study range from the implementation of a subsidy program along the lines of the one adopted during the truck drivers’ strike, in the Michel Temer government, to the review of the policy for monitoring the international market.

Congress, in turn, is discussing the creation of a fuel price stabilization fund, which would use resources from royalties paid by oil companies and dividends paid by the state company itself to avoid passing on peaks in international quotations.

In a note released this Tuesday (8), Amec says that the controlling shareholder of Petrobras has to be responsible for any damage caused to the company. “The Union cannot evade its responsibility,” he says.

The company’s statute says that the Union will only be able to guide the company to assume obligations or responsibilities, such as those related to the sale of fuels when there is a definition in law, contract or agreement and with costs and revenues broken down and disclosed in a transparent way.

It also says that the Union will compensate, each year, the costs related to public policies that it imposes on the company. Private shareholders say that the determinations are a kind of shielding the company against political interference.

Coelho emphasizes that any measures in this direction must respect the company’s governance structure, with evaluation by the board of directors or other internal bodies. In addition, he says, disclosure should follow the standards required by law.

“The main issue is the ever-present risks of interference by the Union in business dynamics, especially in those companies that are traded on the stock exchange, such as Eletrobras, Petrobras and Banco do Brasil”, says the Amec statement.

In 2021, these companies experienced periods of volatility on the stock market by government statements. This was the case of the resignation of former Petrobras president Roberto Castello Branco, announced live by Bolsonaro before any official communication from the company.

The announcement led Petrobras to lose BRL 102 billion in market value in just one day and prompted the opening of investigations at the CVM (Securities Commission). “This volatility is harmful to the market”, says the President of Amec.

Coelho points out that Petrobras shareholders are not limited to large investment funds. “We end up forgetting that there is a large portion of private savings that is an investor in Petrobras. We are talking about individuals and small investors who also suffer from this lack of transparency.”