A Bank Beat an Oil Giant as Brazil’s Top Dividend Payer

2026-03-09 - 12:03

Key Points —Itaú Unibanco paid R$48.9 billion ($8.5 billion) in dividends in 2025, ending Petrobras’s three-year reign as the largest shareholder payout machine on Brazil’s stock exchange —The shift reflects two forces colliding: Itaú posted a record R$46.8 billion annual profit while Petrobras moderated payouts under political pressure from the Lula government to reinvest in