The first state-owned company in Brazil was the Bank of Brazil founded by the Portuguese. In the early 1970s supermarkets were owned by the state. A mining company owned by the state was privatised in the 1990s. The general public in Brazil welcome state intervention in the market or at least expect the state to play a certain role in the market. However, the history of SOEs in Brazil can be classified into four distinct periods namely, creation, consolidation, privatisation and empowerment. The period between the 1950s and 1960s was characterised by a lack of capital to speed up the industrialisation process. The period between 1970 and 1980 was driven by a defence perspective characterised by central planning and the growth of state intervention in the economy. From 1990 onwards the advent of democracy laid bare political interests as a stranglehold on state-owned enterprises management practices and lead to a crisis and finally to privatisation. The empowerment period saw SOEs placing emphasis on corporate governance and SOEs as instruments of public policies, whereas political interest and corruption remained a critical issue.