BRF shareholders want all board members replaced

An extraordinary meeting of the BRF Board of Directors has been called for March 5 as two major shareholders would like to have all directors replaced.

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Tonyatsc, Bigstock
Tonyatsc, Bigstock

An extraordinary meeting for the BRF Board of Directors has been called at the request of two major shareholders who would like to see all of the current directors removed.

According to a material fact posted on the BRF website, an extraordinary meeting has been scheduled for March 5.

The meeting was called following correspondence from Petros and Previ, the two largest stockholders in the Brazilian meat, poultry and food company. According to a Reuters report, the major shareholders wants to see all of the company’s current directors replaced, following BRF’s poorest performing fiscal year to date. BRF concluded its 2017 fiscal year with a net loss of BRL1.2 billion ($371 million). Petros and Previ are both pension fund groups.

Some of the company’s struggles during the year were the result of struggles with Operation Weak Flesh, in which several Brazilian companies, including BRF, were accused of bribing inspectors to approve outdated and/or tainted food. BRF’s poultry processing facility in Mineiros, Brazil, was temporarily closed during the Operation Weak Flesh Investigation. That plant has the capacity and authorization to slaughter 26,000 turkeys and 115,000 chickens per day, according to the company.

The company also was harmed during the year because of weather-related disruptions at two Brazilian ports, which hindered its ability to export products to other countries.

Recent leadership changes at BRF

Should the company see any turnover in board membership, it would be one of many leadership changes in recent months.

The most recent change was announcement on February 26. Hélio Rubens Mendes dos Santos Junior’s resignation as vice president of global operations was revealed in an announcement to the market on the BRF website. He had served the company for “several years,” according to the announcement.

The company also saw a number of changes in leadership in 2017. Among those are:

  • In March 2017 José Alexandre Carneiro Borges resigned as the chief financial and investor relations officer and Rodrigo Reghini Vieira, who had served BRF in a leadership capacity in its innovation, marketing and quality operations, also resigned from the company. 
  • In July BRF revealed changes to its organization structure, following a meeting of its board of directors. The objective of the changes is to standardize and centralize business processes in order to maintain an efficient and stable organization, and to ensure the effective functioning of a global organization. The changes included that the company would now have 14 vice presidents, each of which will have a global vision of the Brazil-based business. The vice presidents were to report to company CEO Pedro de Andrade Faria.
  • Alessandro Bonorino was announced as the vice president of human resources for BRF, effective in August.
  • José Roberto Pernomian Rodrigues resigned from his position of vice-president of BRF in August. That resignation was related to a recent decision issued by the Regional Federal Court of Appeals in the Third Region in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in a criminal proceeding involving him. However, according to the company, the court proceeding deals with facts that occurred more than ten years ago and do not pertain to activities carried out within his leadership role with BRF.
  • Also in August, BRF hired Lorival Nogueira Luz Jr. to become its new chief financial and investor relations officer.
  • José Aurélio Drummond Jr. was appointed global CEO of BRF in November, following an earlier announcement that Pedro de Andrade Faria would be leaving the company.
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