Brazil’s Biggest Pension Fund Turns Into a $50 Billion Activist
When BRF SA, the Brazilian food giant that produces everything from chicken to chocolate pies, reported a record annual loss for 2017, it took less than 48 hours for its second-largest shareholder to act.
Previ, Brazil’s biggest pension fund, sent a letter in February demanding BRF Chairman Abilio Diniz convene a shareholder meeting to remove the entire board, including himself. After a two-month fight, Previ got its way: Investors voted in five new directors and replaced Diniz with Pedro Parente, who’s credited with turning around the country’s state-owned oil company, Petroleo Brasileiro SA.
That success is just the latest example of how the pension fund, which counts more than 200,000 current and former employees of Banco do Brasil SA as participants, is using its 180 billion reais ($50 billion) in assets under management as ammunition in a minority-shareholder rights war.
Read More: Bloomberg
