The President of the Republic Jair Bolsonaro and the Ministers of Economy, Paulo Guedes, and of Mines and Energy, Adolfo Sachsida, participated in the early afternoon of today (14) in the ceremony of ringing the bell for the privatization of Eletrobras at B3, the Bolsa de Values of São Paulo, in the center of São Paulo. Also present were the president of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), Gustavo Montezano and several former ministers of the federal government.
“Now Eletrobras begins a new phase, with a new governance model and I have no doubt that Eletrobras is prepared to continue its leading role in the electricity sector”, said the president of Eletrobras, Rodrigo Limp Nascimento, during the ceremony.
Bolsonaro attended the ceremony, but did not speak at B3. Minister Adolfo Sachsida said that today is historic. “Today is a historic day for our country. A state-owned company leaves the scene and the largest renewable energy corporation in Latin America enters, with renewed investment capacity”, he said.
“The mission is to leave this legacy for future generations. It is the largest clean and renewable energy generation company in the world that is free. It’s like a son who left home at 18 and went for life. And now it will win and it no longer needs to be under the protection of the State”, said Minister Paulo Guedes. “Eletrobras is now free, it is capitalized, it will continue and it is the guarantee of energy security in Brazil”, added the minister.
The ceremony celebrates the offering of shares by Eletrobras, the largest company in the electricity sector in Latin America which, after six decades, passed to private control. Eletrobras’ privatization process takes place through share offerings that dilute the government’s stake in the company. At the end of the process, the government’s share should drop from 72% to 45%.
As the ceremony took place at B3 and was celebrated by those present, dozens of people gathered outside with banners and flags to protest against privatization.
Last week, Eletrobras set the value of each share at R$ 42. According to a statement on the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM), the privatization process of Eletrobras moved BRL 29.29 billion until last week.
Yesterday (13) the trading of Eletrobras shares began on B3 and the shares closed down.
