Americanas has already lost BRL 64 billion in market value since its historic high, in August 2020

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The shares of the retail company, which announced an accounting shortfall of around R$ 20 billion last week, have already retreated 98.42% since the maximum. Facade of Americanas Express stores on Avenida Paulista, south of the capital Itaci Batista/Estadão Content/Archive During the “boom” of retail companies on the stock exchange in mid-2020, Americanas shares peaked in value. On August 3 of that year, the company’s stock was sold at R$122.90, its historic high. At that time, the company’s market value was just over R$66 billion, according to a survey by Einar Rivero, from TradeMap. Since then, based on the close of trading last Monday (16), Americanas has already lost R$ 64.36 billion in market value, while its shares have accumulated a 98.42% drop. The company’s fall began with the worsening of the Brazilian macroeconomic scenario, which affected all stock exchange retailers, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, high inflation, high interest rates and low growth. However, the scandals about “accounting inconsistencies” of R$ 20 billion in the company’s accounts and all the consequences of the case drastically accentuated the devaluation of Americanas. READ MORE UNDERSTAND THE CASE: Americanas collapses in the stock market after discovery of a BRL 20 billion leak See the glossary of the Americanas case and understand terms such as ‘forfait’, ‘covenants’ and ‘debentures’ From street shop to retail empire: see history of Americanas in the country Jorge Paulo Lemann, the richest man in Brazil, loses US$ 329 million in one day with Americanas shares to fall almost 40% during the trading session. With this result, the company’s market value plummeted to R$ 1.75 billion, according to the survey. Before the announcement of the billionaire gap, on January 11, the retailer was worth around R$ 10.82 billion. Just five days later, the stock is down 79.9%. A year ago, on January 16, 2022, Americanas was worth BRL 27.25 billion and, in this period, accumulated a devaluation of 93.44%. A good part of this percentage is a consequence of the declines of the last few days. Understand what happened to Americanas Americanas published a relevant fact last Wednesday (11), saying that “inconsistencies in accounting entries” were identified in the balance sheet, in an amount that reaches R$ 20 billion, in the first estimates. In other words, the company realized that the billionaire value – which refers to the first nine months of 2022 and previous years – had not been properly recorded in the company’s corporate balance sheets. As a result, Sérgio Rial, who had just taken over as CEO of the company, resigned. The breach occurred through an operation known as “drawn risk”. This is a line of credit that involves the company, its suppliers and financial institutions. In this operation, a company that needs to pay its suppliers gets in touch with a financial institution that, through an agreement, releases the necessary amount for the payment of suppliers. It is as if the institution itself paid the bill and the company, in turn, zeroed its debt with suppliers and owes it to the bank — and, of course, charging interest. In the case of Americanas, from what is known so far, there was use of the risk taken in the company’s negotiations, but the operations were not correctly recorded in the balance sheets, which raises doubts about the solvency of the company, its level of indebtedness and brings uncertainty to investors. When disclosing the material fact, the company stated that it estimates that “the cash effect of these inconsistencies is immaterial”. Thus, the breach would only have an accounting effect, not a financial one. On Saturday (14), however, the company released a statement informing that the Court granted an Urgent Precautionary Order that determines, among other measures, the interruption of any contractual clauses that impose the advance payment of the company’s debts and the incidence of interest during this period. In the decision, the judge says that Americanas’ debt could reach R$ 40 billion.

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