Novonor’s new management tries to shield controlling family
After being involved in one of Brazil’s biggest corruption scandals, Novonor (former Odebrecht) has been working in recent months to break the resistance of the market and maintain a viable business. Under protection from creditors, with a debt pile of almost R$100 billion, the Bahia-based group still finds it difficult to sell key assets and to resume construction contracts with OEC (Odebrecht Engenharia e Construção), which started the conglomerate and will be the group’s main business after the sale of a stake in petrochemical company Braskem.In an interview with Valor, CEO José Mauro Carneiro da Cunha and chairman Héctor Nuñez acknowledge that barriers to recovery are still high. "On the one hand, we are selling assets and, on the other, accelerating the growth agenda," Mr. Nuñez said. Credit is another major difficulty - besides having to rebuild the company’s reputation in the market after being renamed at the end of last year."The judicial reorganization is well structured. We will face the payments with [cash] generation from the operation of the companies, growth and sale of assets," Mr. Cunha said. The chairman arrived at the group in 2019.In April, Mr. Cunha, who also worked for the embattled phone carrier Oi, was appointed CEO of Novonor. He is not entirely unknown to the controlling family owner - he had already worked between 2003 and 2005 at Braskem and served on the board of the petrochemical company. Héctor Nuñez, who has run Walmart and RiHappy in Brazil and was an executive at Coca-Cola, has taken over as chairman.The two executives say the Odebrecht family no longer participates in the day-to-day operations and that they are shielding themselves from the father-son dispute. Since Marcelo Odebrecht was arrested in late 2015 by the now questioned anticorruption task force Car Wash - the group admitted that it took part in the widespread kickback scheme - the company has been dismantled before filing for a judicial reorganization in 2019. Since then, Marcelo and his father Emílio wage a public legal battle."Our relationship with the controlling shareholder takes place at the shareholders’ meeting, which occurs twice a year. Maurício [Odebrecht] is a board member who has been extremely positive on the issues discussed in the board. Also, he is one, and we are four," Mr. Nuñez said. Besides Messrs. Nuñez, Cunha and Maurício, the board is also formed by Roberto Faldini and Ruy Sampaio - Emílio Odebrecht’s right-hand man.The...
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