BR Partners: gang committed fraud on Americanas – 02/10/2023 – Market

For the president and founder of the investment bank BR Partners, Ricardo Lacerda, there is a clear deterioration in the balance sheet of Brazilian companies. The reasons are monetary tightening and the economic slowdown, he assesses.

“[Isso] It means that a growing number of companies are renegotiating their debts with creditors, some even reaching judicial recovery”, says Lacerda to Sheet.

BR Partners has just closed a contract with Marisa, which adds up to debts of almost R$ 600 million, to renegotiate with the banks. Lacerda, however, does not comment on the case.

The bank recorded net income of BRL 147.1 million in 2022, an increase of 6% compared to 2021. In total revenue, an increase of 13% to BRL 413.5 million, while the ROE (return on equity) advanced 19 %, while the net margin reached 36%.

Despite the problems pointed out, Lacerda does not believe it is a systemic issue — yet. “To a large extent, the balance sheet of companies remains very healthy in different sectors, being able to absorb this shock in interest rates observed since the pandemic – when the Selic jumped from 2% to 14%”, he says.

“But obviously there will be a scenario of very strong retraction in the short term due to the uncertainties caused by the Americanas case”, he said.

In this scenario, one of the outlets for retailers is to go for mergers and acquisitions, given the sector’s difficulty in proving itself profitable, especially in the online operation – as signaled by the former president of Americanas, Sergio Rial, in the presentation to investors at the BTG’s headquarters, in São Paulo, on January 12, one day after the BRL 20 billion accounting scandal came to light, which ended up leading the company to a judicial recovery, with declared debts of BRL 43 billion.

Questioned on the subject, Lacerda says that “the only operation that has shown that it does not stop standing up to now in retail is that of Americanas”.

“The company engineered a colossal fraud, the biggest in the history of Brazil, clearly perpetrated by a gang that acted in unison”, said the president of BR Partners, making a point of emphasizing that the investment bank is not exposed to the retailer.

wanted by Sheet to comment on the statements, Americanas did not respond until the publication of this text.

Lacerda does not see systemic risk in retail, a sector that brings together “very strong and healthy companies”. “Some may, yes, be burning cash, but they have cash to burn”, he says.

In investment banking, the main business is advisory on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). “This is a way to resolve situations of stress on the balance sheet”, says Lacerda, who also sees merger and acquisition opportunities in debt renegotiation situations, including retail.

According to him, the level of M&A transactions dropped due to negative market conditions in 2022. “But there is an intense pace of conversations and interest in continuing these negotiations. We are going to have a very dynamic scenario in the next 12 months”, he said. .

In the macroeconomic environment, the leader of BR Partners still sees “a certain political volatility” caused by the management of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

“People expected a more pragmatic Lula,” he says. “This type of thing, fighting the independence of the Central Bank, was not on anyone’s radar”, he says, remembering that the declarations directly impact the exchange rate.