Brazilian oil company Petrobras has recently been faced with a continuous stream of new CEOs. Senior Brazilian economy ministry official Caio Mario Paes de Andrade will be the next chief executive of state-run oil company Petrobras, the government said on Monday, replacing a predecessor who served less than two months in the job. The current CEO, Jose Mauro Coelho, has been under fierce criticism to keep fuel prices low in the country by President Jair Bolsonaro. As the presidential election nears, inflation has hit the country hard and Bolsonaro has not been happy with executives at Petrobras which he claims has not reduced prices and instead been reaping massive profits.
Petrobras so far this year has risen close to 30%, easily outperforming the S&P500 as well as the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange. This remarkable gain is largely due to surging oil prices since the start of the year. In addition, the company has an extremely high dividend yield of around 20%. The company benefits from the war in Ukraine as it can sell oil to markets that Russian energy companies might no longer be allowed to. In addition, they have been reducing their debt load and increasing cash flow. However, Investors must be cautious as political pressures will remain high on the company at least until the election in October.