Marisa announces change in command and will have first female CEO – 02/04/2024 – Market

Retail chain Marisa announced this Sunday (4) that Andrea Menezes, an independent member of the board of directors, will be the brand’s new executive president. She is the first woman to hold the position in the company’s history.

Until then, the role was performed by João Pinheiro Nogueira Batista, who is also an advisor to Braskem.

Batista will also no longer hold the position of director of investor relations — a position offered to Roberta Ribeiro Leal, the retailer’s current financial director, who will combine both roles.

In a statement to shareholders, the company said that the change in Marisa’s management complies with the restructuring plan drawn up by the board of directors and the board of directors. The brand also said that it will enter a new phase that “will consider, among other vectors, the company’s commercial positioning.”

Andrea Menezes has already served as a board member of Banco Fibra and was, for six years, CEO of Banco Standard de Investimentos. She also worked at banks such as JPMorgan and Lehman Brothers Brasil.

The change in the network’s presidency comes almost a year after Adalberto Pereira Santos resigned from the same position. During his management, Santos complained about the cost of funding (raising funds from third parties) and the increase in defaults as factors for the retailer’s debt.

In September 2023, Marisa’s net debt was R$448.5 million, an increase of 18% compared to June of the same year. Net equity was R$107.8 million, a drop of 64.6% on the same comparative basis.

From January to September 2023, Marisa recorded a loss of R$408.8 million, an increase of 80% over losses in the same period of the previous year.

The chain also reported having closed 89 stores since implementing its restructuring plan in February last year.

The company has been losing space in the last year to ecommerce. According to BTG estimates, the retailer has already been surpassed in sales by the Asian Shein.

Last month, the then executive president of Marisa and also an advisor to Braskem, João Pinheiro Nogueira Batista, said, on his LinkedIn page, that “the so-called Maceió tragedy did not exist”.

“Thank God no one died. The coordinated action of everyone and Braskem’s leadership prevented the tragedy. We didn’t lose a life!”, wrote Batista in the publication.

Rock salt mines in Maceió (AL) collapsed, sinking five neighborhoods in the capital, leaving more than 14 thousand families homeless.

Later, Nogueira Batista told the Panel SA column that he had no intention of belittling the damage caused by the company. He stated that he would modify the published text and said that it referred to the agreement negotiated by the company, residents and public authorities to prevent deaths.