Bradesco and Americanas enter into an agreement on debt – 09/28/2023 – Market

Bradesco and Americanas reached an agreement to end the process that was one of the obstacles to approving the retailer’s judicial recovery.

This Thursday (28), the companies filed a joint petition with the 4th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro to put an end to the discussion about part of the company’s debts with the bank, the bank guarantees.

These guarantees are guarantees of financial obligations and there is still no consensus in the Brazilian courts on how they should be treated in the event of judicial recovery.

Bradesco argued, based on previous decisions by the STJ (Superior Court of Justice), that they should be left out of the process.

“Considering the common interest in the outcome of the recovery plan presented by the Americanas group, Bradesco and the companies under recovery inform that, without recognizing any legal thesis regarding the issue that gave rise to it, they agree with the closure of the present credit challenge”, says the petition. When contacted, Americanas and Bradesco did not want to comment.

Now, with the discussion over, the bank’s guarantees fall within the scope of judicial recovery debts, which is still awaiting approval from creditors. Bradesco is the largest of them, with more than R$5 billion owed by Americanas.

The discussion around guarantees was one of the main obstacles for creditors and the retailer to reach an agreement on the terms of the judicial recovery.

The bank BTG Pactual and the fiduciary agent Oliveira Trust even questioned Bradesco’s request in court to leave these credits out of the process, which could result in full and immediate payment of such debts.

Vitor Ferrari, a lawyer at Mazzucco e Mello who represents smaller creditors, such as Leão Alimentos, argues that the Americanas judicial administrator should investigate whether there are any negotiations involving this agreement that could benefit the bank in the process.

“It is important to see under what circumstances Bradesco waived these guarantees,” said Ferrari.

According to the lawyer, Americanas owes around R$700 million in guarantees to Bradesco and other financial institutions.

Among the other obstacles that delay the retailer’s judicial recovery are the CRAs (Agribusiness Receivables Certificates) of Hortifruti Natural da Terra, issued before Americanas acquired the brand but included in the process, and the investigations into the accounting fraud of R$ 20 billion, revealed in January this year.

Despite this Thursday’s agreement, Americanas and Bradesco are still locked in a legal dispute in São Paulo.

In the 2nd Regional Court of Business Jurisdiction and Conflicts Related to Arbitration in the capital of São Paulo, an action is underway for the early production of evidence in which Bradesco requests expertise on emails from the high command of Americanas.

On September 21, judge Andréa Galhardo Palma responded to a request from the bank and authorized the resumption of the examination of the emails. She also rejected a request from Americanas that named the Kroll consultancy as suspicious and warned the company against further suspension attempts.

Palma had temporarily suspended the work to avoid harm to the process and at the same time summoned Kroll and Bradesco to speak out. In the sentence, she assessed the merits and issued a warning to the retail chain.

“It is noted that new attempts at reckless suspension will not be tolerated by the court, given the various suspensions that have already occurred at the request of the Americans, warning from now on of the penalties for litigation in bad faith and acts that violate the dignity of Justice”, says an excerpt from the decision.