Petrobras minority shareholders could fight against new CEO

In a letter published on Monday, Brazil’s Mines and Energy Ministry announced that the government will use its powers as controlling shareholder of Petrobras to change its chief executive officer. Again. José Mauro Coelho, who took office just over a month ago, could not resist a recent hike in diesel prices and has been the latest casualty caused by fuel inflation.

His replacement, the government announced, shall be Caio Mário Paes de Andrade, who currently serves as the Economy Ministry’s Debureaucratization Secretary. Mr. Andrade’s nomination must be confirmed by the Petrobras board. 

Mr. Andrade holds an undergraduate degree in communication, a postgraduate degree in management from Harvard University, and a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University. “In 2000 he founded WebForce Ventures, responsible for the development of more than 30 startups,” Petrobras adds in a securities filing. More recently, Mr. Andrade served as the CEO of Serpro, the government-owned data processing company, until August 2020.

Last year, he was bestowed the Order of Rio Branco by President Jair Bolsonaro, an honorific order awarded for services to the Brazilian state. 

But the “serial entrepreneur,” as Mr. Andrade describes himself in his résumé, has no bonafide experience in the oil and gas industry. And minority investors in Petrobras could sue to prevent him from taking office.

Per the law regulating state-controlled companies, Mr. Andrade doesn’t check the necessary boxes for the position. 

The law (passed in 2016 as a way of shielding companies from poor management after multiple scandals, especially within Petrobras) requires that executive positions be filled by people with ten years of experience in the same area of activity as the company — or in...