Americanas asks that assets be protected in the US – 01/25/2023 – Market

Americanas filed this Wednesday (25) a request for the effects of the judicial recovery in Brazil to be extended in the United States, in a process known as “Chapter 15”.

The move seeks to extend the protective effects of the judicial recovery process announced last week and already approved in Brazil to assets in the US.

Chapter 15 is an item of the US Bankruptcy Code, aimed at cases involving companies operating in more than one country.

The rule mandates that US authorities act in cooperation with foreign governments and agencies to facilitate payment negotiations, protect creditors’ rights, and assist in debtors’ recovery.

Americanas, which has as reference shareholders the billionaire trio of investors who founded 3G Capital, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Beto Sicupira and Marcel Telles, went into crisis earlier this year, after revealing accounting “inconsistencies” in the amount of R$ 20 billion. The case made his stock values ​​melt.

In the early afternoon, Americanas shares rose 5%, to R$ 0.84, on the São Paulo Stock Exchange. Before the announcement about the discovery of the accounting problems, the paper was worth R$12.

Also this Wednesday, Americanas disclosed that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, reduced its stake in the company to around 0.12% of the shares, plus 0.36% via derivative instruments. In December, according to data on the Americanas website, this slice was around 5.05%.

Earlier this week, Capital International Investors (CII) informed the company about the reduction of its shareholding in the retailer from 7.04% to 4.07%.

Earlier this Wednesday, the retailer released a list of 7,720 creditors and debts totaling BRL 41.2 billion in its judicial recovery process.

Deutsche Bank topped the list of creditors with $1 billion, but the German bank later said it had no loan relationship or credit exposure to the company.

Banks with exposure to the retailer, according to the list released by Americanas, include Bradesco, with BRL 4.51 billion, Santander Brasil, with BRL 3.65 billion; BTG Pactual, with R$3.5 billion; Itaú Unibanco, with R$2.73 billion; and Safra, with R$ 2.5 billion.

BV initially appeared with R$ 3.28 billion, but the bank also informed the press that the list “does not reflect its real exposure”. The institution said that on the date of disclosure of the accounting inconsistencies, Americanas was a creditor of Bank Credit Certificates (CCBs) with a debt balance of approximately 206 million reais.