Investment plan will define payment of dividends from Petrobras, says Haddad

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, stated this Wednesday (3) that the government is awaiting information from Petrobras regarding the investment plan to define what position it will defend on the distribution of extraordinary dividends. Earlier, Haddad met with the ministers of the Civil House, Rui Costa, and of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, to discuss the topic.

“The decision on dividends is an outcome of the execution of Petrobras’ investment plan,” the minister told journalists after the meeting. Last month, Petrobras decided not to distribute extraordinary dividends of R$43.9 billion to shareholders. The initiative caused the company to lose R$55.3 billion in market value on March 8th.

According to Haddad, the government is awaiting an assessment of the company to find out whether Petrobras can finance the investment plan for the coming years with the resources available in cash or whether it will need to use part or all of the value of retained dividends, reported the Brazil Agency.

“The whole issue that is about to be debated by the board and then by the council is whether or not there will be a lack of resources to execute the investment plan,” said the minister. According to him, the final data provided by the company should indicate whether the state-owned company’s cash flow “is robust enough not to put the execution of the investment plan at risk.”

“The answer to this question will define this distribution. We are waiting for final information from the Petrobras board, based on the provocations made by board members”, he highlighted.

Haddad said that during the meeting a schedule was established for information from Petrobras to arrive as soon as possible so that the government can take a position based on the state-owned company’s Board of Directors on the dividends.