Vale CEO’s ‘days are numbered’

[miningmx.com] — VALE’S CEO Roger Agnelli said on Friday he was not involved in choosing who runs the Brazilian mining company, while local media reported that the company’s shareholders had already agreed he would leave.

The government of President Dilma Rousseff has asked a key Vale shareholder to help replace Agnelli, government sources said on Wednesday, after years of criticism that the company was not doing enough to advance economic development.

“The decision over the director-president of Vale pertains exclusively to the controlling shareholders of the company,” Agnelli said in a statement. “What I have done in recent days is the same thing I have done throughout my career: work.”

A columnist for O Globo newspaper reported on Friday that Brazilian bank Bradesco, a Vale shareholder, had already accepted the decision made by the other stakeholders to replace Agnelli.

“His substitute will be chosen from within the company,” columnist Anselmo Gois wrote on the newspaper’s website.

A spokeswoman for Vale declined to comment on the column.

Rousseff’s government’s apparent efforts to force Agnelli out has sparked concern over state meddling in Brazil’s private companies.

Investors are keen on Vale despite the political risks, citing a strong pipeline of iron and nickel projects, low operating costs, and expectations that Rousseff would seek an experienced executive for the company’s top post.

The government cannot directly fire Agnelli, but it controls a majority stake in Vale’s controlling shareholder, Valepar, via state pension funds and the state development bank BNDES.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega asked Bradesco to help the government replace Agnelli, government sources said this week.