Petrobras Board must approve board renewal this Wednesday – 03/21/2023 – Market

Petrobras’ board of directors must approve the renewal of the company’s board of directors at a meeting this Wednesday (22). All the names indicated by the company’s president, Jean-Paul Prates, were approved by the internal committee that analyzes the resumes and nominees for the top management of the state-owned company.

The renewal of the council itself still faces obstacles. Three of the eleven names indicated by the government have restrictions and the company expects an opinion from its legal area to assess the effects of the decision of the minister of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) Ricardo Lewandowski that makes the State-Owned Companies Law more flexible.

The company expects the new board to take office in early April. Until then, the directors appointed remain in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, targets of a workers’ strike against the decision to maintain processes for the sale of assets with contracts already signed.

Those nominated by Prates are Joelson Falcão (Exploration and Production), Carlos Travassos (Production Development), Claudio Schlosser (Sales and Logistics), William França (Refining and Gas), Carlos Barreto (Digital Transformation and Innovation), Sergio Caetano Leite ( Finance) and Clarice Coppetti (Institutional Relationship and Sustainability).

The first five are employees of the state-owned company. The last three were picked up by Prates in the market.

Unions linked to the company hope that the new group of directors initiate strategic changes promised by Prates, such as the revision of the fuel price policy and the company’s investment plan, resuming contributions in sectors abandoned by previous administrations.

Any changes, however, depend on the renewal of the board of directors, which will be appreciated by the company’s shareholders at a meeting scheduled for April 27th. The government is contesting eight of the eleven seats on the collegiate – two others are reserved for representatives of minorities and the last one, for the representative of workers.

For the eight seats, the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) indicated eleven names, in a troubled process that has already had three different moves, with replacement of names from the initial list criticized even by allies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

The decision to indicate more names than the number of vacancies was taken in view of the risk of banning some of the original names, which do not comply with the requirements of the State-Owned Companies Law, such as the Secretary of Oil and Gas of the MME, Pietro Mendes —the law prohibits the participation of occupants of positions “of a special nature or of management and superior advice in public administration”.

Last week, however, Lewandowski granted an injunction at the request of the PCdoB, making the law more flexible, which may facilitate appointments to the state-owned company’s board. He reduced the quarantine of leaders of political parties and lifted the ban on appointing state ministers, state and municipal secretaries.

Petrobras said in an official statement that the committee had presented “notes” to the nominations of Mendes, Bruno Moretti (who is secretary in the Civil House), and Sergio Rezende (who is from the PSB’s national directory), but that the definitive opinion will only be issued after legal analysis.