[miningmx.com] — Brazilian mining giant Vale announced on Friday it is forcing chief executive Roger Agnelli out, following weeks of rumours that the government was demanding change at the top of Latin America’s largest non-state firm.
Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, said in a statement that its controlling shareholder group Valepar had hired an “international executive recruitment firm” to find a replacement for Agnelli, who has headed the company for a decade and whose term reportedly expires in May.
Vale said it was informed on Thursday of the decision by Valepar, which was to hold shareholder meetings on April 4 and 7 to discuss and choose Agnelli’s replacement.
Three names were on a short-list for the position, and Agnelli “does not appear on the list,” according to company spokesperson Patricia Malavez.
“Three-quarters of Valepar shareholders must approve the name of the new president,” Malavez told AFP.
The Brazilian government holds 60.5 percent of Valepar, which in turn controls 53.5 percent of Vale shares.
The announcement follows weeks of speculation over possible government meddling in the company and Agnelli’s future, which had grown so feverish that Agnelli himself issued a statement in which he denied involvement in “any political matter” related to the company’s presidency.
“What I have been doing lately is what I have done throughout my entire career: working,” he said in a brief statement on March 25.
Local media said the government was pressuring Vale to replace Agnelli, and rumors over such pressure reached a crescendo after Brazil’s new President Dilma Rousseff took office in January.
The press said Agnelli had been in the government’s crosshairs since Vale dismissed 1 300 workers in Brazil and abroad in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis, while then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had urged firms to maintain staffing levels.
Finance Minister Guido Mantega reportedly was responsible for convincing Bradesco bank, the second largest shareholder of Valepar, to make the change.
The daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Tito Martins, a veteran Vale executive who directs its base metals operations, is Agnelli’s likely successor.
In 2010, the group achieved the best results in the history of the global mining industry, with net profits of $17.3bn.
