AMEC

Minority Wrongs Brazil may be a global economic powerhouse whose Novo Mercado listing segment sets emerging-market standards for good corporate governance. But that has not stopped the government from running roughshod over minority shareowner rights at Petrobras, the country’s largest issuer, in which it has a controlling stake. At the March 19 AGM the government rammed through the election of Josué Christiano Gomes Da Silva, son of a former Brazilian vice-president, and Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter, an advisor to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. Both were elected to seats supposedly reserved by law for minority shareowners. Worse, the government carried the vote in part by designating as minority investors the state-owned development banks BNDES and BNDESPAR and state-controlled pension funds Previ, Petrus and Funcef. Maneuvers angered ten global investors, including APG, Florida SBA and Ontario Teachers, who blasted off letters urging the oil giant to improve its governance. Expect a public campaign for minority shareowner rights at state-controlled firms by Brazil’s Association of Capital Markets Investors (AMEC), which coordinated critical responses to the Petrobras moves.
Canada Plan Two far-reaching