Companies have record profitability in 1st half
O Estado de S. Paulo 09/20/10
The publicly listed companies (except for banks) achieved, in the first half of 2010, the greatest profitability of the past 15 years. On average, the return on equity - index that measures how much the shareholders have gained in relation to the capital invested - stayed at 13% - compared to the 2.7% of 1995. The data are featured in a survey made by Economatica, a company of financial information, with all companies listed in the BMF&Bovespa.The improvement in the indexes began in 2002 and it was only interrupted in 2008, with the burst of the crisis that affected the world economy. The average was especially influenced by the companies that were exposed to the foreign exchange transactions of derivatives. But the drop in the profitability, from 12.6% to 8.7%, was momentary. Last year, the indicator had already risen to 12.3% and now, to 13%, says the President of Economatica, Fernando Exel.
Experts assess the improvement in indicators is directly related to the performance of the Brazilian economy in recent years, influenced by internal and external factors. "What we see now is a result of the reforms made in 25 years, such as the autonomy of the Central Bank (BC, in Portuguese), the adoption of the floating exchange rate, the fiscal balance and the microeconomic reforms", says economist of Opus Investimentos, José Márcio Camargo.
He also says the privatizations were decisive for the increase of the productivity and the profitability of the Brazilian companies. In addition to that, there is the increase in the exports, in particular of commodities, and the internationalization of important groups, such as Petrobras and Vale.