Brazil’s listed companies’ profit falls 22% in second quarter

The net profit of Brazil’s 352 listed companies fell 22.3% in the second quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2021, according to a study released Tuesday by the consulting firm TradeMap.

According to the consultancy, the cumulative net profit of listed Brazilian companies fell from R$193.4 billion (US$37.9 billion) in the second quarter of 2021 to R$151.1 billion between April and June.

This drop was mainly attributed to external factors that impacted the Brazilian economy in that period, such as the war in Ukraine, new restrictions in China due to the pandemic, and the strong appreciation of the dollar against the real, which boosted companies’ financial costs.

According to TradeMap, the drop in profit is even greater if companies in the financial sector, whose profit grew significantly in the second quarter, are excluded from the final result.

Taking into account only non-financial open capital companies, the profit of Brazilian companies fell by 28.1%, from R$166.8 billion in the second quarter of last year to R$120 billion in the same period of this year.

This distortion is because the profits of the 18 Brazilian banks listed on the stock exchange grew by 12.7%, to R$29.4 billion reais.

The consulting firm also calculated four large companies with high profits in that period (the oil company Petrobras (NYSE:), the mining company Vale, the paper company Suzano and the petrochemical company Braskem) and concluded that the drop in profits of listed Brazilian companies in the second quarter was 44.5%.

With information from EFE