President of the distribution company Light resigns – 06/17/2023 – Market

Thiago Freire Guth resigned this Saturday (17) as CEO of Light Sesa, Light’s energy distribution company, which filed for bankruptcy in May. Guth also leaves the positions of president of the holding company and director of the group’s generation company.

The company did not disclose the reason for the resignation. He only said that the executive will remain until June 30th and that the substitutes will be announced “in due course”. And ends the statement by thanking Guth for his dedication and professionalism.

It is the second restructuring after the start of the company’s financial crisis. In March, Octavio Pereira Lopes resigned from two of the company’s power generation and distribution subsidiaries. He remains in charge of the holding company and the boards of directors of the subsidiaries.

Light filed for judicial recovery claiming that it is unable to deal with its R$11 billion debt and maintain service in its concession area at the same time. The company tries to force an early renewal of the concession to renegotiate debts.

The company alleges that its situation is hampered by the difficulty in charging for all the energy it distributes in view of public security problems in the state, which has several areas dominated by organized crime.

At the beginning of the month, the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Cláudio Castro, defended that the energy distributor Light has not made an effort to reduce losses with theft of energy in the state, identified as the main reason for its financial crisis.

“Light also needs to move to increase revenue”, said Castro, citing as an example the sanitation companies that took over services in the state after the privatization of Cedae (Companhia Estadual de Água e Esgoto).

“It’s no use, if you have a problem, to cry instead of solving it”, added the governor, acknowledging, however, that the state has a role to play in confronting organized crime. “It’s a shared problem.”

Light serves 4.5 million consumers in more than 30 municipalities in Rio de Janeiro.