The sale of Eletrobrás would offset 15 days of Temer's deficit.

The government may receive less than R$ 10 billion in return from the sale of 14 Eletrobras power plants operating under a quota system. This assessment comes from the acting Minister of Mines and Energy, Paulo Pedrosa. For the projected amount to be included in the 2018 Federal Budget, it will have to be submitted by the Ministry of Mines and Energy to the Ministry of Planning this week.

“This is a projection that is being made, for the purpose of composing the Union Budget,” he said today (29), after participating in the opening of the 8th Brazil Windpower, which brings together, in the center of Rio, until Thursday (31), investors and representatives of the wind energy sector. According to the minister, the value below R$ 10 billion that is being analyzed by the area is a safety forecast.

According to Pedrosa, Eletrobras could also issue additional shares on the market while preserving the golden shares [Terminology used in the stock market when creating special class shares that are retained by the government when it relinquishes controlling interest in companies where it held a stake, known as privatization].

With the sale of shares, Pedrosa said that market forecasts indicate the government could receive around R$ 12 billion, but the amount could reach R$ 40 billion depending on the outcome of the operation. "Even if the government sells half [of the company], it would still have more money in Eletrobras than it has today, provided Eletrobras reaches the potential for appreciation that efficient management would give it," he said.

Some programs remain

The minister further emphasized that the federal government will no longer control Eletrobras, but some of the company's programs may remain under government administration. Pedrosa said that the Ministry of Mines and Energy is detailing, together with the Planning Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Civil House, and Eletrobras, the government functions that may remain under public administration after the sale of the energy company.

“There is no problem with the new Eletrobras, which will be a corporation, continuing to provide [the service], such as, for example, Proinfra [Program for Incentives for Alternative Sources of Electrical Energy]. It can remain as a marketer of Proinfra on behalf of the Union,” he said, adding that, in the case of the National Program for Energy Conservation (Procel), since it is an activity closer to the government structure, it should not be classified as a commercial activity.

Investors

Pedrosa said that the government has been promoting actions to improve the country's energy sector and attract more investors. "Transparency, strengthening institutions, and even privatization are part of this movement to improve the investment environment," he said.

The minister said that this movement is conceptually well-articulated. “It’s not a movement with a fiscal purpose. It’s a movement that seeks to improve the electricity sector and its governance. It’s being conceived in an integrated way, including returning the risk of energy trading to those who understand risk, which is the market agent. A model where you make the consumer pay, separately, for the risk and signal that you are offering cheap energy, has proven inefficient. In the ministry’s view, it’s an evolution of the sector,” said Pedrosa, who is acting as minister during Minister Fernando Coelho Filho’s trip to China, accompanying President Michel Temer.