Four people who were named on the slate of potential new board members for Brazilian meat and poultry company BRF have informed the company they are not interested in being on the board.
According to a material fact on the BRF website, the alternative slate of board members would include the following people: Luiz Fernando Furlan, chairman; Walter Malieni Jr., vice chairman; Augusto Marques da Cruz Filho; Flavia Buarque de Almeida; Roberto Rodrigues; Jose Aurelio Drummond Jr.; Jose Luiz Osorio; Roberto Antonio Mendes; Dan Ioschpe and Vasco Augusto Pinto da Fonseca Dias Junior.
The alternative slate has been proposed after two major BRF shareholders, Petros and Previ, expressed their desire to have the entire board replaced, following the company’s poorest performing fiscal year to date. BRF ended the 2017 fiscal year with a net loss of BRL1.2 billion (US$371 million). The two shareholders requested an extraordinary board meeting to further discuss the matter.
In another material fact, published five days after the alternative slate was announced, it was revealed that Cruz Filho, Osorio and Mendes refused to join the alternative slate. The trio further stated that they were not consulted with concerning their nominations. The following day, another material fact revealed that Malieni was refusing his nomination.
Since Petros and Previ expressed their displeasure with the current BRF board, the company has come upon other turmoil. Pedro de Andrade Faria, ex global president of the world's largest exporter of poultry meat, BRF, was temporarily taken into custody on the morning of March 5 as part of the latest stage of Brazil’s Operation Weak Flesh. Helio Santos Junior, former vice-president of global operations, was also arrested, along with eight others.
The company has also chosen to suspend 6,600 workers with pay at its plants in Capinzal, Rio Verde and Carabei, as it had to adjust production in relation to being prevented from exporting its products to the European Union.
