By many conventional measures, Petrobras is an undervalued gas/petroleum company that seems to have moved past former corruption scandals. Not a bad investment in a depressed Brazilian stock market, but I won't get into detailed stock analysis here.
What I'm puzzled about is why any company would want to return so much of its value to its investors in the form of regular and special dividends. While many investors like (and sometimes live on) dividend income, receiving 25% of a stock holding as a dividend is a tax nuisance. I fear PBR is simply transforming a shareholder's long-term investment into a taxable payout. This won't affect you if you hold PBR in a tax sheltered account, but then you forsake the foreign tax credit.
In a case like this, why wouldn't PBR just buy back shares, increasing the value of each shareholder's investment? Do Brazilians (I assume they're the majority of PBR shareholders) not pay tax on dividends? Is PBR under some political constraints given its a parastatal enterprise?