Safra joins Americanas’ judicial recovery plan – 12/17/2023 – Market

Safra bank retreated from its criticism and decided to join Americanas’ judicial recovery plan two weeks after filing a lawsuit to prevent the process from progressing. The membership was revealed by O Globo columnist Lauro Jardim and confirmed by Sheet.

Americanas has been in judicial recovery since January, with declared debts of R$42.5 billion, and has the country’s largest financial institutions as its main creditors.

With the adhesion of Safras, Americanas is able to surpass the mark of 50.01% of its debt held by creditors who agree with its judicial recovery proposal. This is the minimum necessary for your judicial plan to be approved in the assembly.

On the 27th, the company announced an agreement with Bradesco, BTG Pactual, Itaú and Santander, which hold around 35% of the retailer’s debt. Last Tuesday (12), banks Votorantim and Daycoval joined the plan. On Friday (15), it was the turn of Itaú Asset Management and Banco ABC Brasil, as disclosed in a relevant fact, which increased membership to 47% of creditors, in the company’s calculations.

The company needed new confirmations of support by this Monday (18) to reach the minimum number of creditors with more than 50% of the debt before the general meeting scheduled for Tuesday (19).

Safra has R$2.5 billion to receive from the total of R$42.5 billion (5.8%), which increases the percentage to around 53% of the debt in the hands of creditors who agree with the judicial recovery plan .

The accession represents a setback in Safra’s elevated tone in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, the institution filed a lawsuit in Rio to prevent the retailer from moving forward with the restructuring plan.

In the petition, the bank says it wants to prevent the approval of the plan from putting a “shovel of limelight” on the frauds confessed in the financial statements of a publicly traded company.”

Safra’s defense also condemned the speed with which the retailer intends to approve the judicial recovery plan. “The objective is clear: to quickly undertake, at the end of 2023, a true ‘race’ for the ‘forceps’ approval of the PRJ within the current fiscal year in search of exclusive tax benefits for recoveries and financial institutions colluding with fraud,” the petition said.

At the time, Americanas reacted by stating that the “intention [do Safra]from the beginning, it was not about negotiating, but just satisfying their particular interests, without any concessions, as is natural in a judicial recovery process”.

When contacted this Sunday (17), neither Safra nor Americanas wanted to comment on the agreement.

Americanas’ creditors’ meeting to approve the judicial recovery plan is scheduled for this Tuesday, the last working day of the Judiciary in 2023. The plan includes increasing the company’s capital via issuance of new shares. There will be R$12 billion for the controlling shareholders —Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Telles— and up to R$12 billion for the banks, totaling an injection of R$24 billion into the company. Banks will convert most of the debt into shares in the retailer.

Americanas also foresees in the plan R$2 billion to pay financial creditors through a reverse auction mechanism and R$6.7 billion for those who choose to receive payment in advance, but with a strong discount. At the end of the process, the company estimates that its gross debt will be R$1.875 billion.

In a press release two weeks ago, Safra condemned this aspect of the plan. “The controlling shareholders have the financial resources to fully reimburse creditors for all lost funds. Instead, as part of the recovery plan, they have proposed a capital injection amounting to less than a third of the total value of the fraud and an amount insignificant in relation to its assets”, stated the bank in a note.

“In a coercive attempt to avoid fulfilling their obligations, creditors must agree to close investigations into the fraud in order to benefit from this capital injection. This illegal clause is just one of the multiple deficiencies that Safra bank believes should nullify the entire plan recovery of Americanas as established in the action we filed today”, it said.

At the end of November, Safra asked Americanas for access to the documents that supported the financial statements for 2021 and 2022, when the company presented, respectively, losses of R$6.2 billion and R$12.9 billion. “Failure to comply with this request within the period indicated above [de 48 horas] will result in Safra taking all appropriate measures to assert its fair claim”, said the document sent by Warde Advogados to Americanas’ investor relations department. The request was not met.