Brasília – Brazil’s non-National-Treasury-dependent federal state-run companies saw profits more than double in 2018. As per a report released this Tuesday (30) by Brazil’s Ministry of Economy, these companies’ gains reached BRL 69.974 billion (USD 17.779 billion) last year, a 147% hike over 2017.
Five groups — Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), Eletrobras, and Petrobras – concentrate 96% of the total assets and 93% of net worth of state-owned companies. The greatest increase was for Petrobras, which saw a profit of BRL 377 million (USD 96 million) in 2017 to BRL 26.7 billion (USD 6.8 billion) in 2018, a 6,981.7% increase.
In Petrobras case, the increase occurred because in 2017 the company made a deal to end court cases moved by investors in the United States. The deal costed BRL 11.2 billion (USD 2.8 billion) and impacted the company’s result that year.
Another highlight was Eletrobras group, which came from a negative BRL 1.726 billion (USD 439 million) to a profit of BRL 13.348 billion (USD 3.391 billion) last year. Out of the five groups, only Caixa Econômica saw its profit reduced, from BRL 12. 488 billion (USD 3.163 billion) in 2017 to BRL 10.355 (USD 2.631) in 2018.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda & Gabriel Pomerancblum
