BTG Pactual must maintain proceedings against Americanas – 01/17/2023 – Market

BTG Pactual started this Monday (16) an arbitration process in São Paulo against Americanas for breach of credit agreement, according to people interviewed by the Sheet accompanying the operation.

In the arbitration request, filed with the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce, the bank claims that the payment of the credit with investments held by the retailer in BTG was already included in the loan agreement.

The arbitration chambers function as a private forum, but along the lines of the Judiciary. The award resulting from an arbitration decision has the same value as the extrajudicial award.

The bank intends to maintain the process, even if Americanas files for judicial recovery, which should be done in the coming days, as anticipated by the Sheet.

After the former president of the retailer, Sergio Rial, informed in a material fact, on the last 11th, that he was resigning from the command of the company after discovering accounting “inconsistencies” in the amount of R$ 20 billion, on the 12th, the bank compensated a part of the amounts it had open with the retailer, following clauses of the contract with the company, in an attempt to protect itself from a possible default.

Last Friday (13), Americanas filed a request for urgent precautionary relief with the 4th Corporate Court of Rio de Janeiro, to prevent its assets from being blocked at the request of creditors. In practice, the measure anticipates the effects of judicial recovery.

The injunction, signed on the 13th by judge Paulo Assed Estefan, establishes a time frame for the anticipation of the guardianship on the date of January 11, which BTG considers inadmissible, because it is retroactive.

BTG filed a petition to overturn the injunction, which was rejected. The bank must file a new appeal against the injunction that protects Americanas from creditors, according to people involved in the operation.

The bank has been showing indignation with the retailer. In the petition presented by the law offices of BTG, Galdino & Coelho Pimenta Takemi Ayoub and Ferro Castro Neves Daltro & Gomide, the defense defines the case as “the biggest corporate fraud in the history of the country.”

When contacted, BTG declined to comment on the case.

With Reuters