Petroleo Brasileiro SA investors probably will have to wait another month for quarterly earnings while investigations are carried out into the state-run producer’s alleged participation in a corruption scandal. The stock plummeted in European trading.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company, known as Petrobras, expects to release unaudited third-quarter results on Dec. 12, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. Audited earnings will be disclosed “as soon as possible” and the company will announce a release date at least 15 days in advance, it said.
Federal police are conducting search and arrest warrants for 27 people for alleged involvement in the money laundering scheme known as Car Wash and blocked 720 million reais ($278 million) in assets, the police said in a statement today. Petrobras’s former director of engineering and services, Renato Duque, was among those arrested, O Globo reported on its website.
The police’s press office declined to name the people arrested when contacted by telephone. Petrobras didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the people arrested.
“Petrobras is going through an unique moment in its history,” it said in the statement yesterday, mentioning federal police investigations into corruption and money laundering.
Petrobras’s Frankfurt-listed stock dropped as much as 7.5 percent. The company’s Sao Paulo-listed shares are down 34 percent this year.
The company, which was scheduled to report earnings today, is considering accounting adjustments based on the accusations. The multi-billion-dollar laundering and bribery investigation has put President Dilma Rousseff, who was Petrobras chairwoman from 2003 to 2010, on the defensive and was a major theme in last month’s elections that she won by a small margin.
Petrobras’ auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers informed the company last month it wouldn’t sign off on results and would alert U.S. authorities if appropriate action wasn’t taken to probe the allegations, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
PwC said it can’t comment on clients because of confidentiality agreements and professional rules, the auditor said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg.
Sergio Machado, head of the state-run oil producer’s transport unit Transpetro who was cited in the corruption investigation, said last week that he would take 31 days unpaid leave. That followed PwC’s refusal to approve quarterly results bearing his signature, two people with knowledge of the issue said at he time. Machado said he had done nothing wrong.
The former head of refining Paulo Roberto Costa, who’s under house arrest under a plea bargain deal with prosecutors, said in videotaped testimony he received 500,000 reais ($202,000) from Machado.
Petrobras has hired two law firms to investigate alleged corruption and said Oct. 27 that it’s a “victim” in the investigation and is collaborating with authorities.