Lula says Petrobras shouldn’t “only think about shareholders”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) stated this Monday (11) that Petrobras should not only think about investor shareholders. Last week, the company announced that it will not pay extraordinary dividends, frustrating the financial market. The decision had a negative impact on the company, which fell 10% in the Ibovespa trading session and lost R$55.3 billion in market value on Friday (9).

“What I think is that Petrobras, which is a company in which the government has ascendancy over it, is important to take into account the following: Petrobras is not just a company that thinks about the shareholders who invest in it, because Petrobras has to think about investment and think about 200 million Brazilians who are owners of this company or partners in this company”, Lula told SBT.

The interview was recorded this morning, but the full interview will only air this evening. The president criticized the financial market’s reaction to Petrobras’ announcement. He classified the market as a “voracious dinosaur”.

“If I just respond to the market’s cries, you won’t do anything. Because the market, I’ll tell you something, the market is a rhinoceros, a voracious dinosaur. It wants everything for itself, nothing for the people. Will the market Don’t you feel sorry for the people who go hungry?” said the president.

After the repercussion of the state-owned company’s announcement, Lula met with the president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, and ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance), Rui Costa (Casa Civil) and Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy).