Brasilia, March 2. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday criticized state oil company Petrobras for the record number of dividends it will pay to its shareholders and the low level of investment.
Lula confirmed that Petrobras “en lugar de invertir, decidió agraciar a los accionistas minoritarios” con el reparto de 215,000 millones de reales (unos 41,400 millones de dólares) en dividendos, “cuando debería de haber invertido la mitad” de esa cifra en la industria Brazilian.
“And how much has he invested? Almost nothing,” Lula said at a ceremony marking the launch of a social program, the day after Petrobras announced its 2022 financial results.
Petrobras, which announced record profits of 188,328 million reais (about $36,286 million) in 2022, invested $9,848 million throughout the year, mainly in production and exploration activities .
Lula, who began his third term on January 1, pressed his criticisms, saying that in his first governments Petrobras “was a development company” which invested in refining, in the oil and gas industrial chain and in industry. naval.
Now, he pointed out, it has simply become “a crude oil exporting company”.
The distribution of Petrobras dividends also benefited the Brazilian state, which controls around 36.61% of the company’s capital, but 46.31% is in the hands of foreign shareholders and the remaining 17.08% corresponds to Brazilian retail investors.
The Brazilian president has among his main economic objectives to revive the industrialization of Brazil, for which he has the participation of public companies such as Petrobras.
It is also proposed to end the asset sale program, launched under the government of Jair Bolsonaro, which provides for divestments of between 15,000 and 25,000 million dollars between 2022 and 2026. EFE
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