JBS, two years after the breaking of the Lava Jato scandal, is living a moment of health like it hasn’t had before. The founding family, the Batista’s, takes advantage of the industrial and financial benefits of its position, but it hasn’t yet extinguished the judiciary aspects of the matter. Brazil, on the other hand, has seen the entire ruling class taken out by the scandal and is still recovering from the damages that the situation has caused within the entire country. There is a paradox in the scenery photographed by Bloomberg 24 months after May 17th, 2017, the day that is now known as “Joesley day” in Brasilia: the day in which the private conversation between Joesley Batista and the president-at-the-time Michel Temer reached the press.
Never so well
Gilberto Tomazoni, JBS’s ceo, has recently stated that the group “has never been in such solid conditions as it is now”. The stock price of the meat multinational, observes Bloomberg, has double during the last year and has reached record levels: the value of stocks held by the Batista brothers has increased 60% in comparison to the days prior to the scandal breaking. The choices made by current managers of the group, which also has interests in the tanning segment, were effective. The move made by management to sell off less strategic subsidiaries to strengthen the motherhouse and reassure stockholders put the company in the clear, and so was the choice to invest in swine meat, diversification strategy that improved the performance of the group in China. JBS, once the debt is reduced, is ready to start its journey towards growth once more, explained the ceo: Brazil, contrary to the business, needs more time.
