Pedro Queiroz Pereira, controller of Semapa and Navigator, two of the largest Portuguese companies involved in the eucalyptus business, has died at the age of 69.
Pereira was from Lisbon and had interests in the paper and hotel industry - he owned the Ritz in Lisbon - but his focus was on planting more and more eucalyptus to feed his pulp mills and supply biomass power stations.
Semapa - Sociedade de Investimento e Gestão, is a Portuguese holding company with interests in the cement, pulp, paper and environmental services sectors. It controls the Navigator Company which specifically is involved in pulp and paper, with 1,380 km² of forest and an annual turnover of over €1.5 billion. Pereira controlled them both.
July’s Forbes magazine shows Pedro Queiroz Pereira as the fifth richest man in Portugal, valued at €1.129 billion but according to the Exame magazine, he had a fortune of €779 million, shared with his mother.
Either way, Pereira was loaded and was a fierce defender of the pulp and paper business that involved carpeting as much of Portugal’s countryside as possible with water-depleting, non-native eucalyptus that has been blamed for the rapid spread, size and intensity of wildfires.
The businessman was especially proud of Navigator which, he delighted in saying, represented 3% of the total value of Portugal’s exports. He claimed green credentials for the company, stating that over 50% of the total energy produced from biomass in Portugal is generated by the Navigator Company - 5% of the total electricity production in Portugal.
In an interview with the newspaper Expresso, the businessman irritably threatened to cancel planned pulp investments after the government decided to stop further hectares being turned over to eucalyptus plantations. A eucalyptus planting frenzy ensued after the 2017 summer fires and before this expansion ban came into effect in early 2018. This ensured supplies to the pulp companies which claim they otherwise will have to import wood.
In Navigator's 2017 annual report, Pereira was highly critical of the government’s eucalyptus policy despite its role the uncontrollable spread of wildfires, sometimes bringing lethal results and wrote that, "measures are being adopted with the blatant intention of undermining our industry."
The Chairman’s statement, (printed in full below,) made clear Pereira’s view that his timber operations were so efficient that other sectors in the forestry business could benefit from his company’s example.
Pereira wanted more and more forests of eucalyptus. he often used the ‘imports’ argument, “There will, of course, be a worsening of the already very heavy burden of raw material imports for the eucalyptus pulp industry. The companies in this sector lose their competitiveness, which is exacerbated by their external competitiveness, and the country loses through foreign exchange and job destruction.”
Pereira concluded, “I must acknowledge that this perspective causes me some disenchantment, for it forces me to conclude that, instead of improving our endogenous competitiveness factors, the life of productive enterprises becomes more difficult and investment becomes riskier.”
Pereira, stubborn and smart, was instrumental in bring down Ricardo Salgado's Espírito Santo Group in 2014, in a long-running drama that started in 1992.
The war between the two powerful families, who had collaborated for over 70 years, ended with threats, covert information gathering; battles at AGMs, a complaint to the Bank of Portugal and Pereira's testimony at a parliamentary committee.
Pedro Queirós Pereira fell down the stairs of his yacht in Ibiza, after suffering a heart attack on Saturday 18th August. His demise is being investigated by the Spanish authorities as a matter of course.
"Queiroz Pereira died Saturday at midnight on his luxury yacht, moored at the port of Ibiza," Ibiza Daily reports, citing police sources.
Although "there were very few doubts about the accident, the police had to open an investigation to close the case."
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa presented his condolences to the family in a note of condolence published on the Presidency of the Republic's website.
The President regrets "the premature disappearance of this great Portuguese industrialist."
The Eucalyptus King had three daughters who are involved in their father’s businesses.
________
Message From Chairman of the Board of Directors
Pedro Queiroz Pereira
Navigator annual report, 2017
Shareholders,
The Navigator Company again achieved excellent results in 2017, despite an economic environment with persistent weaknesses and uncertainties at home and abroad. Our industry has not been immune to this difficult climate, which has been reflected mainly in falling pulp and paper prices. The decrease in pulp prices was especially sharp, due in part to capacity expansion projects completed during the year.
The Company’s ability to maintain excellent returns is testament to the strength of its business model, and also to the skills, dedication and motivation of its management team, as well as the entire workforce across the organisation, responsible for the high standards of efficiency and performance achieved throughout the complex value chain.
So I would like first of all to record my appreciation of their efforts, and also to urge them to continue to pull together, so that we can successfully overcome the challenges facing us every day.
It gives me immense satisfaction to report that The Navigator Company has expanded its production capacity and moved into new geographical regions and business segments; the Group has been able to do this smoothly, as a logical extension of capabilities developed in the past. Examples of this have been the start of pellets production in the United States and growth in Tissue business.
At a time when many of the developed countries are waking up to the pernicious effects of de-industrialisation and when, in Portugal, measures are being adopted with the blatant intention of undermining our industry, The Navigator Company has continued to invest, and has been widely praised for its determination. The Navigator Company Group has earned admiration not just for achieving growth and establishing itself as a leader in a number of market sectors, but also for the resilient, balanced and sustainable way in which it has persisted with its investment policy.
We are a socially responsible company, happy to be accountable to society, as clearly and systematically shown by our biannual Sustainability Report. In the same spirit, we also have a policy of openness to the community, and our plantations, nurseries and mills receive thousands of visitors each year. We take special pride in welcoming groups from schools and universities for a learning experience that is often the students’ first taste of the real economy.
A substantial part of our investment is channelled to scrupulous compliance with environmental parameters, consistently applying the highest standards. Particular attention is paid to safety and security, to efficient use of water and chemicals, reductions in carbon emissions and to making our operations less energy-intensive.
In its research and development activities, the Company cooperates closely with formal seats of learning, such as universities, polytechnics and technology centres, in a mutually beneficial relationship.
The close ties we seek to develop with our suppliers, most of which are small and medium-sized companies, has made it possible to improve their technical and management capabilities and also to provide a stable basis which allows them to plan their operations efficiently.
Crucially, these suppliers include tens of thousands of forestry producers and providers of forestry and timber transport services. The Navigator Company has a long history of cooperation with these producers and many of the industry associations, and considerable effort has been put into overcoming the most serious problems faced by Portuguese forestry: deficient forestry pratices, pests and diseases, plants ill-suited to soil and climate conditions, fires and the lack of certification.
This direct involvement with producers and cooperation with other organisations has helped to make for a flourishing eucalyptus sector in Portugal, with a vitality that other sectors would benefit from copying, introducing a competitive dynamic which would modernise the entire forestry sector.
This is what I would expect to happen, and what would be best for our country. But instead of positive measures, new obstacles and barriers have been introduced to planting and replanting eucalyptus, which receives discriminatory treatment in relation to other forestry sectors, without any economic or environmental justification, and with the immediate and long -term consequence that even more rural properties in Portugal will simply fall into disuse.
This of course will add to the already heavy burden of paying for expensive imports of raw material for the eucalyptus pulp industry. The losers are the pulp manufacturers, who are less able to compete internationally, and the country as a whole, which loses foreign revenues and sees jobs disappear.
I must confess I find this discouraging, as I can only conclude that, instead of improving the internal factors that enable us to compete, life is made increasingly difficulty for companies which are productive and take greater risks in their capital projects. At a time when protectionist barriers are starting to go up again around the world, some better disguised that others, our country could do without artificially creating internal obstacles to economic success. This is definitively not the path to avoiding de-industrialisation.
I am confident that, despite all the difficulties, our Navigator Company Group will continue to steer a steady course that allows for balanced development, and that, thanks to our transparent dealings with clients, suppliers, the authorities, shareholders and other stakeholders, it will continue to strengthen its reputation in the sector, which is one of its most precious assets.
