São Paulo – Through a statement, Petrobras announced this Wednesday (04) the resignation of the company’s CEO, Maria das Graças Fortes, and of five directors, who were not named. The new management will be chosen next Friday (6th), the day of the next Management Council meeting.
Graça Foster’s departure was expected since Tuesday (3rd). Since March of last year, Petrobras is facing a crisis triggered by a Federal Police operation that uncovered a corruption scheme involving company directors, construction companies and political parties. The revelations of Lava Jato operations affected the performance of the company in the São Paulo Stock Exchange (Bovespa), with the company’s shares being valued under R$ 10 (US$ 3.68).
The company wasn’t able to release a 2013 third quarter balance sheet because the audit company responsible for its validation stated that it wouldn’t sign in on it without the corruption scheme losses being accounted for. The balance results were released only on Friday (30th), but without being validated by an audit company and the accounting of the costs resulting from the corruption scheme.
On Tuesday (03rd), the company’s shares closed the day up 15.4%. The upward trend remained for this Wednesday morning, but started to drop early afternoon.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
