Americanas shares close down 38.4% after company obtains creditor protection

Americanas shares collapsed again this Monday (16), while financial agents evaluated the consequences of the accounting inconsistencies announced last week, with the company having obtained an injunction to protect against creditors last Friday.

The retailer’s shares fell 38.41%, quoted at R$ 1.94, the worst performance of the Ibovespa, which closed today at a fall of 1.54%. In the sector, Magazine Luiza led the positive field with an appreciation of 12.24%, followed by Via, which was up 10.55%.

In the trading session prior to the announcement about the fiscal problems, which resulted in the resignation of the newly sworn-in chief executive and financial vice-president, Americanas shares were worth R$12.

On Friday, Americanas obtained a court decision protecting it for 30 days against early maturity of debts, a period that the retailer can use to reach an agreement with creditors or ask for a judicial recovery.

Any changes in the retailer’s balance sheet resulting from the announcement of inconsistencies of BRL 20 billion, according to the decision, “may have an impact on the company’s indebtedness level and minimum working capital (…) advance payment of debts in the order of R$ 40 billion”.

For Genial Investimentos, all of Americanas’ value points are going “down the drain”. They highlighted worsening financial leverage, higher cost of capital, margin compression and doubts about revenue growth, as noted by clients.

“This will be another turbulent week for Americanas shareholders and we reiterate our recommendation to “don’t catch the knife falling”, they said.

They estimate that, in order to gain liquidity, in addition to a capitalization of reference shareholders, the retailer will be able to put up for sale two of its valuable assets for the thesis of investment in the shares – its partnership with Vibra, Vem Conveniência, and Hortifruti Natural da Earth.

For XP, Americanas will work in two ways. The first, the negotiation of a capital injection with the banks, which they estimate between R$ 10.6 billion and R$ 20.6 billion.

Another route considered by XP is the organization of the necessary documents for filing for judicial recovery, “which may be considered the most likely alternative, given the size of Americanas’ debt and the potential need for capital, in addition to the number of creditors involved.”

The credit rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch cut Americanas’ credit ratings on Friday, after the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) opened two processes to investigate the retailer. Minorities also denounced Americanas to the CVM, asking that the investigations include the auditing firm PwC, responsible for analyzing the company’s balance sheets.

Banks

Over the weekend, BTG Pactual appealed against the injunction that protects Americanas from creditors, according to documents seen by Reuters. BTG’s lawyers argue that the injunction illegally determines the reversal of a payment made by Americanas to BTG.

Analysts drew attention to the exposure of the bank and other financial institutions to Americanas.

Based on previous cases, analysts at JPMorgan estimate that banks should start accruing around 30% of their exposure to Americanas, which may eventually increase depending on the outcome of any request for judicial recovery.

“While we had rising provisions next year for most banks, our numbers still don’t reflect such a significant corporate case,” Domingos Falavina and team said in a report to clients dated Sunday, who don’t see much of an impact on their capital level. banks.

“It was not a good start for 2023, but banks can try to anticipate provisions as early as the fourth quarter (of 2022) and start 2023 with a clean slate.”