Government expects to complete Eletrobras capitalization in 15 days

The federal government expects to complete Eletrobras’ capitalization within 15 days, after the company filed a share offering request with regulatory agencies in Brazil and the United States. Sources heard by CNN confirmed that the process can be faster because the market is already prepared to participate in the operation.

With the sale of more than 627 million shares, Eletrobras will no longer have the Union as a majority partner, moving more than R$ 30 billion in the capital market. According to the schedule provided for in the material fact published by the company, between June 2 and 8, interested parties will be able to reserve shares. The definition of the price per share will be on the 9th of the next month.

The start of sales negotiations on the stock exchange is scheduled for June 13, according to a document from Eletrobras. Faced with the political clash around privatization, the risk of surprises happening until then is not small and anyone who is closely monitoring the government knows this. “The game isn’t over until the referee blows the whistle,” a source told the column.

Judicialization is taken for granted by market experts and it can be triggered on several fronts, including consumers. In most of the large privatizations that have taken place since the late 1990s, there have been protests and many attempts to derail the business. Even Eletrobras itself had the sale of subsidiaries suspended in the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government because of political protests.

After that, it was only in 2018 that the possibility of taking the federal government out of control of the company started to have a real chance of happening. Eletrobras paid a very high price for being forced by the government to participate in the change in the electricity sector promoted by MP 579, of the government of Dilma Rousseff.

The measure forced a reduction in the energy tariff and made the company accumulate billions in losses. Between 2016 and the beginning of 2021, Eletrobras underwent a complete restructuring under the management of Wilson Ferreira Jr, now CEO of Vibra. The executive was authorized to sell the state-owned distributors and settle the company’s accounts, but it was not enough to allow leverage of investments.

The formulation of the capitalization model approved by the National Congress did not escape the political tortoises, such as the obligation to contract energy from thermoelectric plants that do not even exist yet, and a tumultuous judgment in the Federal Audit Court that delayed the offering of shares. The cost imposed by the tortoises is still uncertain, but it could exceed R$ 50 billion and fall on consumers.

With the registration made this Friday (27) by the direction of Eletrobras, the operation enters a final stretch, but not yet definitive, until the hammer is hit on the stock exchange.