Inducted on the 19th as president of Eletrobras post-privatization, Wilson Ferreira Júnior returns to the company he presided from 2016 to 2021 with the goal of promoting the company’s real growth.
“Capitalization opens up the opportunity for new business, new horizons, without the constraints that we had as a state-owned company, which prevented us from achieving greater productivity excellence, related to our generation and transmission operations, especially from resuming a perspective of real growth for the company. company”.
The focus of the new Eletrobras will be the energy market.
In his first press interview, Ferreira Júnior informed that, to make this management process viable, a transformation office was created, linked to the presidency and led by the compliance director, Camila Araujo.
The transformation office has five pillars of company value creation. The first is the issue of energy trading in the free market, with the end of the quota regime that will take place over the next five years, starting in January 2023. 14,000 megawatts (MW) of energy were discounted, which will be taken to the market at a rate of 20% per year. Eletrobras’ intention is to strategically and intelligently offer this energy to the market, commented the president.
The second pillar is cost and expense reduction. Ferreira Júnior announced that, in November, a new Voluntary Dismissal Plan (PDV) should be announced, already agreed with the union of the category, aimed at retired or “retireable” employees. The goal “is to have a company similar to your social environment,” he said.
The POS should reach around 2,000 people and makes room for company interns to join the workforce, contributing to the Eletrobras modernization process, in addition to reducing costs. To prepare the company for capitalization, the number of employees dropped from 26,000 to 12,000.
avenues of growth
Achieving cost excellence and creating growth prospects are part of the third pillar, maintaining responsibility in the area of generation and transmission, which has not grown competitively for some time. “We’re going to identify the avenues for growth,” he said. There are opportunities in the area of solar and wind energy and hydrogen can also enter the portfolio, for discussion with the Board of Directors.
The resolution of contingent liabilities is the fourth pillar of the new management. In legal liabilities, there are more than R$ 30 billion in provisions, informed Ferreira Júnior. Strategies will be identified so that the company can turn the contingent liability into an asset, as long as there are agreements that are positive for the counterparty and for Eletrobras. In this work, the company will be assisted by legal firms and financial advisors, who are being hired. The pillar of tax efficiency will also be sought for the company, which is present in all Brazilian regions.
Wilson Ferreira Júnior informed that the sale of companies in which Eletrobras has a minority stake will be studied. “We are going to study possible sales of SPEs (special purpose companies), in which we are minority. We want assets where we have control. We are not financial investors”, he declared.
The migration of Eletrobras to the new B3 market is already underway by the organization. Camila Araujo revealed that the preliminary schedule predicts that the entry may occur at the end of the first half of next year.
renationalization
Wilson Ferreira Júnior ruled out the possibility of renationalizing Eletrobras, whoever the new elected president is, next Sunday (2).
“In the case of Eletrobras, it makes no economic sense for the government to reverse capitalization”, he said, noting that this would mean for the government to spend three and a half times the value per share. “I don’t think there’s any change.”
