By Fabio Teixeira and Marta Nogueira
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -Brazilian state-run oil firm Petrobras will pay extraordinary dividends if there is an “opportunity” for it, Chief Financial Officer Fernando Melgarejo told an earnings call with investors on Friday.
Any decision on an extraordinary payout would depend on the company’s current cash conditions and future cash generation capacity, said Melgarejo.
“This means that an extraordinary dividend payment is not ruled out in 2024,” he added.
The remarks came after the firm posted on Thursday lower-than-expected results for the second quarter, with a net loss of 2.6 billion reais ($472.22 million), and announced a reduction in investment estimates.
Despite the negative bottom line, the firm did issue dividends to the tune of 13.57 billion reais, for which it used 6.4 billion from a capital reserve.
Sao Paulo-traded preferred shares of Petrobras fell as much as 3.4% in morning trading, before paring some losses to trade down 0.5% by early afternoon.
($1 = 5.5059 reais)
(Reporting by Fabio Teixeira, Marta Nogueira and Roberto Samora; Editing by Gabriel Araujo)
