Petrobras shares fall 11% after company reports 33.8% drop in profit in 2023
Shares of Brazilian oil company Petrobras opened with a fall of 11% on the São Paulo stock exchange after the company reported a 33.8% drop in its profit in 2023 and announced a dividend payment lower than expected.
According to the newspaper O Globo, around 10:30 local time the shares of the state-owned company fell by around 13% in Brazil and abroad. In the United States, ADRs – income from company shares – fell 11% before the regular opening of the stock exchanges.
The company obtained a net profit of 124,606 million reais (25,250 million dollars) in 2023, 33.8% less compared to 2022. In the last fourth quarter, it earned 31,043 million reais (6,300 million dollars), representing a decrease of 28.4% compared to the same period in 2022.
These are the first annual results of the company under the Administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who intends for Petrobras to function as an inducer of the country’s growth by increasing its investments and lowering dividends.
The sales income of Petrobras was 511,994 million reais, with a decline of 20.2% annually. The company explained that turnover was lower compared to 2022 mainly due to factors such as a drop in the price of a Brent barrel and lower margins on derivatives.
Adjusted ebitda fell 23.0% last year, to 262,227 million reais. Annual investments increased by 28.7% in the annual comparison, reaching 12,673 million dollars.
Net debt closed last December at $44,698 million, 7.7% more than the same month of the previous year. Last month, Petrobras reported that it produced a record daily average of 3.8 million barrels of oil and natural gas equivalent in 2023.
Petrobras pointed out that this year’s dividends will amount, if the assembly approves the last item, to 72.4 billion reais, compared to the 194 billion reais distributed last year.