Lula rejects Petrobras dividends, says firm has ‘almost no investment’ | – #Lula #rejects #Petrobras #dividends #firm #investment
BRASILIA, March 2 (Reuters) – Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday criticized Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s ( PETR4.SA ) dividend payments and said the company should invest more in the country’s growth.
His comments on Wednesday came after the firm posted a better-than-expected 38% rise in fourth-quarter profit, up from last year’s total of 215.8%. billion real (41.48 billion dollars), being 35.8 for this period billion came when it announced it would pay a real dividend.
“We cannot accept today’s news that Petrobras has paid more than 215 billion reais in dividends,” Lula said at the event.
He emphasized that the oil giant should invest “half” of its annual dividends in Brazil’s economic growth, saying that the money should be used for the country’s marine and oil-gas said that it can be injected into the industry.
The latest multi-billionaire payout could still be reduced as Petrobras’ board of directors also approved a proposal for shareholders to keep about 6.5 billion reais of fourth-quarter dividends to build cash reserves for the company.
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Petrobras has surpassed oil fundamentals in dividends last year the president Local where Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula the president strengthened the treasury of the government on the eve of the elections.
Under Bolsonaro, the federal government, Petrobras’ largest shareholder, sent a letter to the company and other state-owned enterprises asking them to increase dividends to finance additional federal spending.
“Petrobras decided to donate 215 billion reais to minority shareholders instead of investing. How much was their investment? Almost nothing!” Lula said that despite the government receiving a large amount of dividends, the firm itself.
($1 = 5.2021 reals)
Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Edited by Anthony Esposito and Andrea Ricci
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2023-03-03 01:03:16
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”