BTG makes a provision of BRL 1 billion, without mentioning Americanas – 02/13/2023 – Market

BTG Pactual disclosed this Monday (13) that it had a net profit of BRL 1.64 billion in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to a performance of BRL 1.74 billion in the same period of 2021. The bank also made a provision for R$ 1.12 billion, but did not mention Americanas, the company that owed the amount.

In adjusted terms, BTG Pactual’s net profit in the fourth quarter was R$ 1.8 billion, practically stable compared to the performance of a year earlier. Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 2.27 billion reais in the period, according to data from Refinitiv.

The bank’s annualized adjusted return on average equity for the final three months of 2022 was 16.7%, up from 22% in the third quarter and 19.4% a year earlier.

Without citing Americanas, the bank made a “non-recurring” provision of R$ 1.12 billion in the fourth quarter in the corporate segment, but did not reveal the reason, citing only that the reserve was “related to a specific credit exposure”.

The legal battle between BTG and Americanas began last month, when Americanas obtained an injunction that prevented creditors from collecting debts for a period of 30 days. Soon after, the bank filed a request to block BRL 1.2 billion in deposits made by the retailer and the case dragged on in several divergent decisions.

In the most recent decision, head judge Paulo Assed Estefan validated BTG’s requests made before Americanas forwarded the recovery process on January 19. On Thursday (9), Justice accepted a new appeal from the financial institution against the retailer.

The amount of R$ 1.2 billion is invested by Americanas in CDBs and Financial Bills of the bank

Several banks reported in the fourth quarter, in the corporate segment, provisions to face losses generated with Americanas’ bankruptcy filing. Last week, Bradesco released a balance sheet with an extra provision of almost R$ 5 billion to cover all exposure to the retail chain, according to comments by analysts.