Lula and Prates made Vale and Petrobras speculators rich – 03/03/2024 – Marcos de Vasconcellos

As we measure the performance of the Brazilian Stock Exchange by looking at Ibovespa, it is always good to remember that 25.6% of the indicator’s composition are Vale and Petrobras shares. And when both become the target of the verbiage of the powerful, the Stock Exchange feels it and the investor is back on the ropes.

It makes no sense to demand that politicians act like Benedictine monks, with vows of silence. I’m a journalist and I know the value and importance of a good statement, or “quote”, for politics, journalism and the financial market. But it is worth demanding, as minority shareholders, that they measure the impacts of their words before giving gifts to listeners.

When criticizing Vale, in an interview with RedeTV!, last Tuesday (27), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva decided to go (far) beyond attacks on the company’s command and its attitudes towards the Brumadinho disasters and Mariana. He came away with the following pearl: “Brazilian companies need to be in agreement with the Brazilian government’s development thinking.”

Holding Vale responsible for its mistakes, accusing it of using its marketing to carry out “greenwashing” (creating a false image linked to sustainability) and demanding a stance from its management is something that can be done, yes, by the government. Previ, the pension fund for Banco do Brasil employees, after all, has almost 9% of the company’s shares.

Now, ordering companies to be “in accordance with government thinking” is another thing. It is opening wide the door to the economic policy of favoritism and the patronage of capital.

The unfortunate charge came precisely in the week in which The Economist, the world’s leading economics magazine, published a major report pointing out that Chinese authorities had issued new guidelines to the country’s bankers, requiring them to adopt a “more patriotic stance” in their business. .

With the economic slowdown, Chinese regulators are adjusting policies to align market interests with government objectives. What at first seems like a behavioral patrol, at the end of the day, tries to direct the money towards long-term investments that “serve the real economy”, according to the report.

If Lula’s speech about Vale also has the secret objective of retaining money in the country, it remains to be explained. As it was, it seems like a great way to scare away international investors and weaken our market.

Large investors who, in fact, hurriedly sold Petrobras shares this week, following statements by the company’s president, Jean Paul Prates. In an interview with Bloomberg, he poured water on those who bought the shares in search of the fat dividends paid in recent years.

“Shareholders will understand,” he said, commenting on the possibility of cutting dividends to invest in changing the oil company’s energy matrix. They didn’t understand, and the stock plummeted.

At these times, saying that it was misinterpreted is not up to politicians with so many years of experience.

Fighting with the financial market is a quixotic fight, which is unlikely to improve the lives of Brazilians. The case of Germany doesn’t let me lie: the country is on the verge of a recession, according to its own economic agencies, while the Stock Exchange has just broken a new record. The market and the real economy run on different lines.

Aiming your cannons at national giants generates noise and profits for some speculators, with the abrupt movement of shares, but takes attention away from what really matters.

LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access five free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.