The megacapitalization of Brazil’s state-controlled oil and gas multinational, Petrobrás, has resulted in an expansion of the Brazilian government’s stake in the enterprise: Brasilia’s ownership of voting shares rose from 57.5% to 64% and the amount of social capital controlled by the government went from 39.8% to 48%.
The latter consists of ordinary shares and preferential shares (non-voting) and is distributed as follows: 33.2% belongs to the government itself and 11.8% belongs to the Brazilian Development Bank (“BNDES”) – which is government-controlled.
The rest is now distributed as follows: 3% is owned by Brazil’s sovereignty fund (Fundo Soberano); the Banco do Brasil pension fund (“Previ”) owns 2.9%; the Petrobras pension fund (“Petros”) owns 0.8% – all of which are, again, government controlled. The remaining 48.3% of stock was sold on the open market.
The Petrobras capitalization was the largest ever – a world record of approximately US$ 70 billion dollars (close to 120 billion reais). And it transformed the company into the fourth biggest on the planet – all less than two weeks before a presidential election.
Brazil’s Central Government, which consists of the Social Security system, the Central Bank and the National Treasury, is going to have a record primary surplus in September as a result of the Petrobrás megacapitalization operation.
The largest monthly primary surplus ever was in April 2008, when it reached 16.7 billion reais (US$ 9.8 billion). It is believed that the September surplus could be double that.
So far this year the cumulative primary surplus (January to August) is 29.4 billion reais (US$ 17.2).
