Where are former CEOs of Americanas after the scandal – 02/11/2023 – Market

It was the afternoon of January 13, 2023. The then chairman of Santander in Brazil, Sergio Rial, 62, called a meeting with representatives of other financial institutions.

On the agenda, the crisis at Americanas – one of the largest retailers in the country which, in a relevant fact released on the night of the 11th, signed by Rial himself (then president of the company), announced the existence of “accounting inconsistencies” of R$ 20 billion .

In the same statement, the executive said that he was resigning as head of the retailer and would act as an advisor to the three main shareholders of Americanas – Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, partners in 3G Capital and, until the end of 2021, controllers from the retailer.

At the meeting called by Rial –with whom Americanas owes R$3.65 billion in debt–, he proposed a “haircut” to the banks, an expression used in the financial market to indicate a discount on the debts of a company in difficulty. The banks, irritated, still not understanding what the so-called “accounting inconsistencies” meant, denied any agreement.

Among the retailer’s biggest creditors are, in addition to Santander, Bradesco (R$ 4.51 billion), BTG Pactual (R$ 3.5 billion), Itaú (R$ 2.73 billion) and Safra (R$ 2.52 billion). billion). In the evening of the same day, the institutions were surprised by the request for urgent precautionary relief filed by Americanas with the 4th Corporate Court of Rio de Janeiro, which in practice prevented the retailer’s assets from being blocked by creditors.

The fight between the big banks and Americanas officially began.

Smart, dedicated and vain

Rial, the messenger, was one of the first to be punished: some of the bankers present at the meeting contacted Ana Botín, president of the Santander group, complaining about the executive’s attitude in the face of the evident conflict of interests, according to executives close to the participants of the meeting .

The heiress of the Spanish bank would have demanded, then, that Rial –responsible, in the past, for leading the Brazilian branch to break profit records– to resign as chairman of the board.

The announcement was made on January 20, one day after Americanas entered into judicial recovery, with declared debts of R$ 43 billion. A Sheet tried to contact Rial, but he did not respond to requests for an interview.

The report also contacted Santander to find out whether the executive’s resignation was determined by the bank’s command in Spain, but the institution said it will not comment on the matter.

A month after bringing the scandal to light and leaving the command of Americanas, Rial continues to advise the 3G trio, but now behind the scenes, according to close executives.

Alvarez & Marsal, which took over the restructuring of operations, and Rothschild bank, ahead of the negotiation with financial institutions, would have come from him.

The former CEO no longer goes to the company’s headquarters, but remains active, according to bankers interviewed by the report. He has been reaching out to creditors and journalists to try to tone down criticism of the Americanas case.

While he was Santander’s chairman, he instructed bank officials not to comment on the scandal, either officially or on condition of anonymity.

A banker close to Rial says that the conflict of interest he was exposed to was very serious – which could tarnish his successful career at the Spanish bank. According to this interlocutor, Rial is very intelligent and dedicated. But he was also very “vain” and “egocentric”, which may have contributed to his accepting the 3G trio’s invitation, without measuring exactly the consequences of exposing his name to the scandal.

Becoming the “trusted man” of the three Brazilian billionaires, world references in management, and still being very well paid for it, may have overshadowed the risks.

To this day, the market questions since when Rial knew about the accounting gap he ended up announcing. He was presented as the new president of Americanas about five months before taking office, in January. The distance between the announcement and the inauguration may indicate that the executive is being prepared, within the command transition process.

In the meantime, the retailer’s shares appreciated, waiting for the shock of Rial’s management. Top executives at Americanas sold their shares on the market, pocketing R$244.3 million.

‘Hidden subject’ that left few marks after almost 30 years at home

Rial came to take the place of Miguel Gutierrez, 60, the executive “master of the house” at Americanas, where he arrived in the early 1990s. years in charge of the retailer, accumulating the function with the director of relations with investors.

A Sheet spoke with suppliers, consultants, retail specialists and retailer service providers. No one had spoken to Gutierrez, almost a “hidden subject” at Americanas. His contact with the market was restricted to teleconferences with analysts and investors every three months, in the release of the retailer’s balance sheets.

Gutierrez was very close to Beto Sicupira, who served as chairman of Americanas’ board for many years and is now one of the retailer’s key shareholders and director. He was a member of the trio of partners from the former GP Investimentos (cradle of 3G Capital) responsible for developing the company, while Marcel Telles did the same at Ambev.

According to a source who worked closely with Gutierrez at Americanas, as a service provider, the executive never took a step without asking Sicupira’s permission. There was no autonomy at the top of the retailer: decisions depended on the former controlling shareholder.

Even minor decisions, such as paying BRL 50,000 to a supplier, were only taken after asking “Beto” for approval.

The same happened with the three directors removed on the last 3rd, who accumulated more than a decade at home – Anna Saicali (president of Ame Digital), Timotheo Barros (vice president, responsible for physical stores, logistics and technology) and Márcio Meirelles (Vice President, responsible for the digital, consumption and marketing areas).

Former high-level officials complained that Gutierrez treated executives and employees in a rude and hostile manner, bordering on bullying.

A Sheet was unable to locate Gutierrez: he does not maintain social networks, does not have advisory services, and Americanas says that the former president no longer has any connection with the company.

At Americanas, where he accumulated almost 30 years at the company, Gutierrez reproduced, in a way, the posture of Sicupira, known for his aggressive profile, different from the partners Lemann and Telles who, although they were tough in demanding results, tend to adopt a more accommodating posture. .

“Delicacy in the work environment has never been Beto Sicupira’s strong suit”, describes journalist Cristiane Correa in “Sonho Grande”, by (Editor Sextante, 2013), a book about the history of the 3G trio. “At Garantia, the scenes of intemperance he starred became legendary. ‘Trator’ and ‘owner of the truth’ are some of the expressions most used by former colleagues at the bank to describe his mercurial temperament. swearing and punching the table to assert his opinion. ‘It’s easier to hold a madman than to push a donkey’ is one of his favorite phrases”, says the excerpt from the work.

Garantia was the bank bought by Lemann, where Telles and Sicupira worked, later partners in the business.

Excessive coldness of the trio leads to bloody dispute between executives

Claudio Galeazzi, 81, founder of the consulting firm Galeazzi & Associados, which restructured Americanas in the late 1990s, tells in the book “Sem Cortes”, in partnership with Joaquim Castanheira (Portfolio-Penguin publisher, 2019), a bit of the profile of each of the trio of billionaires.

“Relentless in demanding results, in general they are affable in dealing with people on a daily basis. Lemann speaks little and listens a lot. Of the three, Sicupira is the most aggressive, while Telles presents a more temporizing profile and reveals a fine irony “, he says, who points out a “single criticism” of the trio.

“Apart from the results, nothing matters. It’s excessively cold. As a result, a climate of bloodthirsty internal competition is created, as if the guy sitting next to you was an opponent to be beaten. I worked with the GP on several occasions and I believe in meritocracy, but the concept could be more humanized without losing objectivity”, says Galeazzi, referring to GP Investments, the embryo of 3G Capital.

“Does it sound strange to talk about humanized meritocracy? The difference is in the way people are charged and treated, taking into account the moment of each one and the circumstances of the company and the market, among other variables. This does not mean that the search for efficiency is placed in the background”, says Galeazzi in the book.

After the scandal came to light, 3G Capital –which also has executives Alex Behring and Roberto Thompson Motta as partners– hired advisors to contact the press in order to clarify that it was not the investment fund, but the trio of billionaires the shareholders of Americanas. The holding company LTS Investments represents the three in 3G.

There are even comments that the trio’s relationship would be shaken after the case and that Sicupira would be blamed for the scandal. The report got in touch with the advice of LTS, who denied any uneasiness between the three, much less a chance of rupture.

American consultant and writer Jim Collins, who wrote the preface to “Dream Big”, said he was surprised by the trio’s calmness in situations of high stress, such as the world financial crisis of 008.

“At no point did I observe panic, just a spirit of careful weighing of options, followed by calculated decisions. In times of uncertainty and chaos, people often want to act as quickly as possible, as if that will make the crisis go away,” he wrote. .

“‘Of course it’s human nature to want to make uncertainty go away,’ one of them told me. ‘But that desire can lead you to act quickly, sometimes too quickly. Where I come from, you quickly realize that uncertainty will never go away, no matter what decisions or actions we take. So if we have time for the situation to unfold, giving us more clarity before we act, we take that time. Of course, when the time comes, you need to be prepared to act firmly,'” Collins reports in the book.

It is this time that Americanas employees, suppliers, minority shareholders and creditors are anxiously awaiting.