Copel postpones decisions that precede privatization – 07/10/2023 – Panel

Responding to a request from BNDESPar (BNDES Participações SA), the shareholders of Copel (Companhia Paranaense de Energia) agreed to withdraw some items from the agenda of the extraordinary general meeting scheduled for this Monday afternoon (10), amid pressure from PT parliamentarians opposed to the privatization of the company.

On Sunday (9), Copel informed that it received a letter from BNDESPar asking for the withdrawal of four items from the agenda, such as statutory changes, the conversion of preferred shares into common shares and the company’s migration to the “Novo Market” (a special segment in handbag). The measures precede the privatization of the company.

Today, Copel is controlled by the government of Paraná, the largest shareholder, with a 31.07% stake. But a state law passed at the end of last year authorizes the company to no longer have a controlling shareholder. Since then, Copel has been adopting measures to conclude the privatization.

The letter from BNDESPar, which is Copel’s second largest shareholder, with 23.97% of the shares, was signed by the president of BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), Aloizio Mercadante.

The BNDESPar demonstration was celebrated by the opposition group to the governor of Paraná, Ratinho Junior (PSD). According to PT parliamentarians, BNDESPar’s request is a sign of “opposition to privatization”.

Petistas had already tried to cancel the holding of Copel’s extraordinary general meeting at the STF (Federal Supreme Court), but the injunction was denied by Minister Luís Roberto Barroso.

“We are confident that the BNDES will oppose the statutory changes that allow transforming Copel into a company with dispersed capital, without a controlling shareholder”, assesses state deputy Arilson Chiorato (PT), in reference to the law sanctioned in November last year by the government from Paraná.

State law also proposes rules so that no shareholder will exercise votes corresponding to more than 10% of the total.

BNDESPar’s request to withdraw the items from the agenda was analyzed right at the beginning of the extraordinary general meeting.

In the letter it sent to Copel, BNDESPar alleges that the items, if approved, could “reduce the rights granted to preferred shareholders without any compensation, whether of an economic or political nature”.

Mercadante also states that BNDESPar takes into account “the strategic nature of the Company and its relevant role for energy security in Brazil, as well as ensuring the rights and interests of BNDES as a public bank, which has financed and participated in the company for over 30 years” .

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