Americanas starts week with investors waiting for difficult negotiation with creditors

The week starts for Lojas Americanas with investors waiting for a definition on what should be a tough negotiation with the retailer’s creditors.

On Friday, after the market closed, it became public that the Justice of Rio de Janeiro accepted the company’s request for judicial injunctive relief, a process that prevents the attachment or blocking of its assets by creditors until a possible lawsuit is opened. of judicial recovery by the company.

Last Wednesday, the company announced “fiscal inconsistencies” of BRL 20 billion on its balance sheet. This breach could lead to the early maturity of BRL 40 billion in debt.

The retailer’s creditor banks agreed to postpone the charge to prevent the company from going bankrupt and generating a ripple effect both in the financial system and in retail. However, the condition imposed by the banks for this maneuver is that the company capitalize quickly, which must be done through the issuance of shares in an offer of a few billion reais.

Executives who follow the negotiations closely believe that financing conditions will become tougher from now on, as banks will charge more to assume greater risk.

The retailer’s shares, which have dropped about 70% in the past week, are expected to reflect a court decision to protect the company against creditors on Monday.

Crisis must be accompanied by three aspects

The consequences of the Americanas crisis must be analyzed in three different ways: management, consumer relations and legal means.

The first is the relationship with creditors. Americanas got 30 days to present a solution and negotiate its debts. The big question is: the biggest consideration is how much shareholders are willing to put into the company to start the conversation.

The second way has to do with consumers. Already in its first communiqué, on Wednesday night, when Americanas announced not only that Sérgio Rial would no longer be its president, but that there was an unforeseen gap in its balance sheet, it made a point of putting in the communiqué that there was no problem with company box.

In other words, there is no operational problem, the company has cash to keep operating: paying salaries, making deliveries, and maintaining its relationship with funders.

Therefore, the company will continue to operate. Until when, it is not known, but the action of consumer protection agencies is important to closely monitor this process.

The third way is the legal one, in which the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has already filed at least three lawsuits.

The autarchy investigates not only why there was an accounting error of this size, but also whether anyone got away with this story. Did you have inside information from someone who anticipated what was to come and made inadequate money from it?

*With information from Thais Heredia / published by Ligia Tuon