Refinaria de Petróleos de Manguinhos S.A

What it is

Refinaria de Petróleos de Manguinhos was founded in 1954 by entrepreneur Drault Ernanny to supply Brazil’s growing appetite for refined fuel. It became the first privately-owned refinery in Rio de Janeiro state, and today brands itself Refit.

It refines petroleum products in Brazil, offering naphtha, gasoline, special solvents, LPG, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil, and other chemical products. The refinery covers more than 600,000 square metres and employs approximately 129 people.

Who owns it

Refinaria de Petróleos de Manguinhos is a subsidiary of XOROQUE Participações S.A., a private holding company. Per the structured data, insiders (including XOROQUE) control 69.5% of shares, institutions hold 15.6%, leaving a free float of roughly 15% (our calculation).

The identities of the ultimate beneficial owners of XOROQUE are not disclosed in available public sources. Meeting records from 2019 show Fernando Hargreaves presiding over shareholder assemblies attended by XOROQUE Participações.

Who runs it

Named executive and board details are not disclosed in available sources accessed for this profile; the company’s investor-relations filings at the CVM (Brazil’s securities regulator) carry the relevant governance documentation.

The money, in plain words

Refit sells a great deal of fuel — trailing 12-month revenue of R$8.64bn (~US$1.68bn) — but spends more to produce it than it receives. For every real of sales it loses about 19 cents before reaching the bottom line, a net margin of –19.2%, which means the raw refining operation is deeply underwater.

The balance sheet tells an even starker story: the company carries a negative net worth — its debts exceed its assets by roughly R$7.4bn (US$1.4 bn). Revenue did grow strongly in 2024, rising from R$5.04bn (US$979 mn) to R$6.98bn (US$1.4 bn), a gain of 38.5% (our calculation), but losses also widened — from –R$979m (US$190 mn) to –R$1.04bn (US$202 mn) (EODHD).

The company holds just R$93m (~US$18m) in cash against total liabilities of R$15.2bn (~US$2.95bn), a position that is only viable under the legal shelter of creditor protection.

What it is doing now

Refit resumed full operations in 2015, after Brazil’s Supreme Court overturned a 2012 expropriation decree by the then-governor of Rio de Janeiro, Sérgio Cabral, which had forced the refinery to sharply curtail activities. The episode forced the company into creditor protection proceedings — a court-supervised reorganisation — whose restructuring plan was subsequently approved by creditors.

The situation has since escalated sharply. In May 2026 the Rio de Janeiro state prosecutors’ office formally asked the courts to consider converting the reorganisation into outright bankruptcy, arguing that after nearly a decade under creditor protection the company had failed to achieve the financial restructuring the law requires, and that its tax liabilities had grown from approximately R$5bn (US$971 mn) to around R$25.7bn (US$5.0 bn) over that period.

Separately, a September 2025 federal tax authority operation seized a cargo linked to the company; the regulator CVM subsequently demanded the company clarify its relationship to the seized shipment, amid reporting that Refit was importing naphtha to blend into gasoline while declaring it as crude oil, and that the Federal Revenue Service was investigating possible tax evasion and the use of front companies to conceal the true importers. Refit has denied involvement.

What to watch

• Bankruptcy conversion: The prosecutors’ push to flip the reorganisation into bankruptcy is the single most consequential risk; a court ruling either way will determine whether the company continues to exist.
• Tax liability trajectory: Prosecutors allege that more than 80% of taxes due between 2022 and 2024 went unpaid, a pattern cited as characteristic of a habitual defaulter. Any settlement or enforcement action would be material.
• Federal investigation: The Federal Revenue probe into alleged import misclassification and front-company use is ongoing and could result in criminal or administrative penalties beyond the existing tax debt.
• Free-float liquidity: With a market value of only ~US$17m and a free float of roughly 15%, trading in RPMG3 is very thin; the share price can move sharply on small volumes.

This is news, not investment advice.