There are no reasons to keep Petrobras state-owned, says Mailson da Nóbrega

For economist and former Minister of Finance Maílson da Nóbrega, the current situation of Petrobraswith the withdrawal of the nominees of the government for the presidency and the presidency of the council, is one more argument in favor of privatization of the state-owned company.

In an interview with CNN this Tuesday (5), he assesses that, since the governments of presidents of the Workers’ Party (EN), Petrobras “has been a perfect and finished example that it can no longer continue to be a state-owned company”.

“We had corruption, and now a president who changes the company’s presidents simply because he didn’t like what they said, didn’t lower prices, a president who doesn’t understand these governance issues, the law of state-owned companies itself, and he keeps interfering in a disastrous way. at Petrobras. This creates uncertainty for shareholders, for the market”.

In this sense, Nóbrega hopes that this situation “matures the idea that the time for state-owned Petrobras has passed”.

According to him, state-owned companies are created when there is a market failure and lack of investors, credit and capital markets to invest in a relevant area, as was the case in 1953, when Petrobras was created. But that would not, in his view, be the situation today.

“We have entrepreneurs, large companies, we have a robust capital market, we have a solid financial system. There is no reason to keep Petrobras state-owned, but it has to be done very carefully, to gain the support of public opinion, it is necessary to prevent the state monopoly from moving to another company,” he says.

For the former minister, the case of Adriano Pireswhat withdrew from the nomination after pointing out supposed conflicts of interest, it shows a “certain prejudice”.

“Adriano Pires is a renowned consultant, he is being seen as dishonest, that is, the Public Prosecutor’s Office before the TCU demanded an investigation into Adriano’s clients for him to be able to take over, casts a suspicion before he is appointed, and all this leads more to the difficulty of recruiting talent”.

“Why go to the government, assume risky positions and subject yourself to this type of treatment?”, he asks. He believes that this is linked to a “certain prejudice with profit”, which ended up generating suspicion about placing qualified professionals from the private sector in state-owned companies.

Elections and high interest rates in the US can make dollar rise

THE CNNMaílson da Nóbrega also spoke about the recent appreciation of the real in relation to dollar, with the US currency reaching its lowest value in more than two years. For him, the current position should have been reached more than a year ago.

“The structural exchange rate, the one that favors the balance of payments, should be around R$ 4.40, R$ 4.50 today. It came close to R$6 for internal uncertainties, the way the government faced the pandemic, how the president governs, the confusions he caused, all this generated a certain uncertainty among investors”, he says.

With a relief from this scenario, some factors started to contribute to bring the dollar to its current position. The first is the perception that the Brazilian stock market is “very cheap”, encouraging the entry of investments.

“Secondly, with the closing of the Moscow stock exchange and the uncertainties that are there because of the war, many investors left Moscow for São Paulo, to invest in commodity companies”, he says.

He also cites the recovery of China and the war in ukrainewhich led to an increase in the prices of commodities that Brazil exports, and should lead the country to record trade surpluses in 2022.

However, Nóbrega recommends caution, and assesses that the scenario may change in a few months due to the increase in interest rates in the United States, which should attract investments to the country, and the 2022 elections in Brazil, which “in Brazil are usually a moment of great uncertainty, which affects the exchange rate”.