By Walter Douglas Stuber1
Current legislation expressly allows publicly-held companies to negotiate put and call options referenced on their own shares, for cancellation, maintenance in treasury or disposal. That kind of transaction is presently regulated by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission ("CVM") by its Instruction nº 390, of 8 July 2003. Options may be negotiated so long as the company’s charters expressly provides that the Board of Directors may authorize negotiation with its own shares, or, in the absence of any such provision, in the presence of specific deliberation by a Shareholders’ Meeting. Under special circumstances, CVM may give prior consent to transactions not meeting the requirements in Instruction CVM 390.
