State-controlled oil company Petrobras has announced a dividend of BRL 24.7 billion (USD 5 billion) — BRL 1.89 per share — linked to its Q1 2023 results, which will be released this Thursday evening. The announcement sent Petrobras shares up 3.38 percent in the last hour of trading on Brazil’s B3 stock exchange.
The dividend amount is in line with the company’s current remuneration policy, which stipulates that Petrobras must distribute to its shareholders 60 percent of the difference between operating cash flow and acquisitions of fixed assets and intangibles (investments) when gross debt is less than USD 65 billion.
In addition, the Petrobras board also decided that the company’s directors would propose an adjustment to the ongoing strategic plan to improve the shareholder remuneration policy — including the possibility of share buybacks — and submit these issues to the board for deliberation by the end of July.
The dividend for the first quarter of 2022 was 97 percent higher than that of Q1 this year. Across 2022 as a whole, Petrobras paid out more dividends than ever before in its history and posted a consolidated net income of USD 36.62 billion, up 84 percent from the previous year.
A study by the consulting firm Janus Henderson found that Petrobras paid the second-highest dividends in the world last year.
The Workers’ Party of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has opposed massive dividend payments, saying the money should be used to finance more investment. Petrobras CEO Jean Paul Prates, appointed by the government, agrees.
On April 28, the Lula administration took another step toward promoting its desired changes at Petrobras. Shareholders elected six names proposed by the federal government to the company’s board of directors, expanding the potential for changes to the company’s fuel price policy.
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