Read this Friday’s edition of the FolhaMercado newsletter (15) – 15/09/2023 – Market

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Fine of R$ 1 billion

Uber do Brasil was ordered in the first instance by the São Paulo Labor Court to register between 500,000 and 774,000 drivers on the platform. The decision also imposed a fine of R$1 billion on the company for collective moral damages.

Uber states that it will appeal and that it will not adopt any of the measures in the sentence.

↳ What the decision says: determines the hiring of the platform’s service providers under the CLT regime within six months after the action becomes final — when there is no longer any possibility of appeal —, under penalty of a daily fine of R$10,000 per driver.

• After the company is notified, it must inform the total number of drivers with active registration. Of this total, you must prove registration of at least one-sixth.

• Failure to comply with the determination may lead to a new fine.

↳ What Uber says: that the decision represents an isolated understanding and contrary to the jurisprudence that has been established by the second instance of the São Paulo Regional Court itself in trials since 2017.

• The company states that it is convinced that the sentence did not consider the set of evidence in the case.

↳ What the case law says: lawyers heard by Sheet state that there are even decisions from groups of the TST (Superior Labor Court) recognizing the labor relationship between the company and providers, but that there is no joint and defined understanding on the case.

International controversy: In England, the Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that there is a labor relationship between drivers and Uber. The company says on its website that British workers are entitled to the minimum wage, holiday pay and access to the pension system.

Here in Brazil, the issue is also addressed by the government, which created a working group to discuss the regulation of app workers.

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Casas Bahia melts

Shares of Grupo Casas Bahia (new name for Via, the company that also owns Ponto and Extra.com) plummeted 18.92% this Thursday.

Which explains: the company had announced last week a follow-on (subsequent offering of shares) with the objective of raising R$1 billion in the issuance of new shares to improve its capital structure.

• The company’s idea was for shareholders to join the offer at a price close to the market, which was in R$ 1.26 in season.

• This Thursday, however, it reported that the offer raised just R$623 million and was priced at R$ 0.80 per share.

• It is a discount of almost 28% on the price of the paper last Wednesday (13), when it was worth R$ 1.11.

• The shares then opened sharply on Thursday and closed at R$ 0.90. During the year, they retreat 62.5%.

Debt alerts market: The new issue of shares is an attempt by the Casas Bahia Group to improve its debt profile and enable a restructuring of the business.

What bothers managers most is the R$8.7 billion that the company borrows from banks to finance the payment of its customers’ installments.

Added to the negative scenario is the sour moment for retail. The high Brazilian interest rate makes financing more expensive for companies and reduces customers’ appetite for consumption.

More about the financial market:

Shares in Arm, a British chip company owned by Softbank, debuted with a jump of 24% this Thursday on Nasdaq.

• As I explained in yesterday’s edition, the IPO was expected by investors as a way of measuring the market’s appetite for new share listings. Judging by that first day, the hunger is great.