Petrobras soars on woman chief’s appointment

Shares of Petrobras soared to a near eight-month high as the Brazilian state-controlled oil company announced the appointment of its first woman chief executive.

Petrobras said Maria das Graças Foster, a company veteran said to be close to Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, would take over the reins of what is arguably Latin America’s most important company from incumbent José Sérgio Gabrielli in February.

Guido Mantega, finance minister, “has already indicated he will put a proposal before the next meeting of the board of directors, on February 9, indicating that the present director of gas and energy Maria das Graças Silva Foster, will be the president of Petrobras”, the company said.

The appointment of an experienced engineer to take over from Mr Gabrielli, an economist, was welcomed by investors after two years in which the company’s stock has disappointed markets.

Petrobras shares rose 5 per cent after the announcement, ending the day up 3.8 per cent at R$25.13.

Ms Graças Foster, who joined Petrobras as a trainee in 1978, holds a degree in chemical engineering, masters degrees in chemical and nuclear engineering and a masters in business administration.

Born in a favela, or slum, in Rio de Janeiro in 1950 in an area now known as Complexo do Alemão, she started work at the age of eight collecting waste paper, bottles and aluminium cans to sell to pay for her school things, newspaper Valor Economico reported in a profile.

She is said to be close to Ms Rousseff, who chaired Petrobras’ board when she was energy minister under the previous president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Ms Graças Foster also served in the ministry under Ms Rousseff as head of its oil and natural gas department.

“Graças Foster is very closely associated with President Dilma since she worked ... with the future president even before she was the minister of mines and energy,” said political analyst David Fleischer.

Like the Brazilian leader, Ms Graças Foster has a reputation as an efficient technocrat who is pragmatic and politically strong because of her connections to the president.

As the first woman president in a company with a mostly male workforce, these qualities will serve her well.

Ms Graças Foster’s principle task will be to help Petrobras realise its aim of doubling oil production by 2020.

The company is planning capital expenditure of almost $225bn in the five years to 2015 to develop vast deepwater oilfields off the coast of south-eastern Brazil but is grappling with a shortage of manpower and equipment.

Ms Graças Foster will also have to turn round a company that has lost market confidence after it paid the government for the offshore reserves with a $70bn share offering in 2010 that investors saw as overvalued.

In spite of announcing the discoveries, the US-traded shares of Petrobras have fallen 40 per cent since late 2009.

Ms Graças Foster herself has also come under scrutiny in recent years after Brazilian media revealed that a company run by her husband, Colin Vaughan Foster, was found to have had 43 contracts with Petrobras between 2005 and 2010.

Contacted by the Financial Times on Monday, Mr Foster said: “We do not work for Petrobras or any of its subsidiaries.”

During an FT conference last year, Ms Graças Foster, who has been married several times, told the audience that when she is with her children, she loves them. But in the office, “I forget I have a husband”.