Americanas fail to reach agreement on investment of BRL 10 billion – 03/07/2023 – Market

Americanas presented a new proposal to financial creditors, with a structure similar to the previous one, but which included a cash contribution of R$ 10 billion in the company with the support of its reference shareholders, but there was no agreement so far, the retailer informed this Tuesday (7) in material fact.

“The Company hopes to continue maintaining constructive discussions with its creditors in search of a sustainable solution that allows the continuity of its activities”, said the company in the statement.

In mid-February, Americanas proposed a cash capital injection of R$7 billion with the support of shareholders Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Telles. The offer, at the time, was also rejected.

Americanas said this Tuesday that new meetings were held with financial creditors in the last two days.

Both values ​​proposed by the company include financing of R$ 2 billion already contributed.

In addition to the capital increase, the February proposal also included the conversion of financial debts of approximately R$ 18 billion, part into capital and part into subordinated debt, and, additionally, a debt repurchase of R$ 12 billion.

Americanas indicated in this Tuesday’s material fact that these terms were maintained, as it said that the new offer had a “similar structure” to the previous one.

This Monday (6), the 22nd Civil Court of the São Paulo State Court of Justice (TJ-SP) granted Bradesco the restriction of the assets of Americanas’ fiscal councilors, as guarantee for the debt that the retailer has with the bank.

As a result, Carlos Alberto de Souza, Pedro Carvalho de Mello, Peter Edward Cortes Marsden Wilson, Ricardo Scalzo and Vicente Antonio de Castro Ferreira, Americanas’ tax advisors, became the target of a judicial protest, which limits the movement of their assets.

In practice, the decision works as a “notice to the square”: anyone who buys one of the directors’ assets is warned that they may have that asset seized in the future, as compensation.

The decision, signed by judge Mario Chiuvite Júnior, is yet another chapter in the arm wrestling of the country’s largest banks with the retailer, which entered into judicial recovery on January 19 with declared debts of R$ 43 billion.

Americanas’ biggest debt is in the hands of private banks (R$19.5 billion), with Bradesco the main creditor (R$5.1 billion). The list continues with Santander (R$ 3.6 billion), BTG (R$ 3.5 billion), Itaú Unibanco (R$ 2.7 billion) and Safra (R$ 2.5 billion). Public banks Banco do Brasil (R$ 1.6 billion) and Caixa (R$ 500 million) are also part of the list of creditors.