Americanas: B3 assists investigation into insider trading – 01/17/2023 – Market

The chief executive of B3, Gilson Finkelsztain, said this Tuesday (17) that the company is providing data to help the CVM (Securities Commission) determine whether there was use of privileged information with Americanas shares.

“We are forwarding information to the CVM to help (detect if there was insider trading),” Finkelsztain told reporters.

The executive said that the rules of the Novo Market, a listing segment with stricter governance rules to which Americanas is a member, do not provide for the exclusion of companies involved in scandals or fraud.

“This is a subject that can be discussed in the next reform of the Novo Market rules”, said the president of the Exchange, noting that there is still no date for this to happen.

Before Americanas, another Novo Market company involved in an accounting scandal was the reinsurer IRB Brasil Re, in 2020. The company is still part of the segment.

Since Americanas revealed last week an “accounting inconsistency” of R$ 20 billion, the company has already lost more than 80% of its market value on the Stock Exchange.

Finkelsztain said that B3 may exclude Americanas from the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE), but that he will wait for answers to questions asked by the exchange about the episode. According to him, the market’s focus now should be on adopting measures to prevent cases like these from happening again.

Americanas defaulted on interest on the company’s 17th issue of debentures the day before and the CVM already has five lawsuits open against the retailer and the auditor responsible for the company’s accounts, PwC.

PLANS

Finkelsztain said that, despite the low tide of the variable income market, given the high interest rate cycle that made Brazil close 2022 without a single listing on the Stock Exchange, there is a chance of resuming initial stock offerings (IPOs) this year.

He mentioned among the sectors that he sees as having the greatest chance of bringing new companies to the trading floor, those of energy and sanitation, which have been attracting interest from investors, even in the current scenario.

“These are more stories of companies with value than high growth,” he said, predicting that new listings could start from April.

With a long period without company debuts on the market and with smaller volume in the spot market, B3 has increasingly invested in new lines of business, such as offering data-based solutions, which accelerated with the purchase of Neo technology and Neurotech.

In the 12 months to September, the market infrastructure operator generated around 500 million reais in revenue from the sale of data-based solutions. Finkelsztain’s prediction is that the division’s revenues should grow at a double-digit rate annually over the next three to five years.