RIO DE JANEIRO, April 13 — Shareholders in Brazil’s Petrobras voted yesterday to remove Roberto Castello Branco as chief executive of the state-controlled producer, and elected his government-picked successor to the board of directors.
The manoeuvre, while widely expected, is a formal step in the government’s plan to replace Castello Branco with Joaquim Silva e Luna, a retired army general who has no oil and gas experience.
Castello Branco became CEO in January 2019 and drew market plaudits for selling off billions of dollars of non-core assets and sharpening the company’s focus on deepwater oil production.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said in February he was ousting the University of Chicago-educated executive amid a dispute concerning fuel prices. Castello Branco remained on the job in a caretaker role until Monday afternoon.
Bolsonaro picked Luna to take the helm of Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the firm is formally known. The career soldier is set to be elected chief executive by the new board of directors.
As of Monday evening, the shareholders’ meeting was still in progress.
Among the major unresolved issues is the number of representatives non-government shareholders will be able to elect to the company’s board. Although the government will maintain a majority, a greater number of minority shareholder board seats could help drive a more market-friendly agenda at the oil producer.
Luna’s previous job as head of the Itaipu hydroelectric dam on the Paraguay border is a far cry from running one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest companies.
Yet Luna and those around him insist market jitters are overblown. Luna has pledged to keep politicians from filling key Petrobras positions with underqualified allies, a serious problem under previous administrations. — Reuters
