Even at a loss, US funds sell Americanas shares

Surprised by the billionaire hole in Lojas Americanas, and the fear that the situation will deteriorate even more, American funds with trillions of dollars under management have preferred to sell shares in the company and bear the loss, then bet on the company that faces an unprecedented crisis , but which many say is still operationally viable.

Two of the retailer’s biggest minority shareholders, Los Angeles-based giant Capital Group and the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), one of the nation’s largest teacher pension funds, joined the queue. Another important name in the capital of Lojas Americanas is BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world.

Americanas has been in judicial recovery since last week. The company informed the court that it had a debt of R$ 43 billion. The company’s crisis began on January 11, when, in a material fact, it said it had found “accounting inconsistencies” of R$ 20 billion. The announcement came with the resignation of then-president Sergio Rial, who had been in office for just over a week.

The great fear of US investors is the risk of fraud, an issue that has already caused a lot of headaches for American investors, scalded by accounting scandals such as those of Enron and WorldCom. Today, they prefer to suffer the loss rather than remain with the shares of companies involved in non-transparent deals.

In January alone, the shares of Lojas Americanas have already accumulated losses of more than 90%. Abroad, debt securities (bonds) had a similar drop and were traded at just US$ 0.10 (R$ 0.51) last Friday afternoon.

About to leave

Capital International Investors, which belongs to the US giant Capital Group, reported yesterday that it reduced its stake in Lojas Americanas to 4.07% from 5.45%. The operation was carried out on January 20, one day after Americanas filed for judicial recovery, according to a statement disclosed to the market yesterday. That day, the stock fell 29%, and closed at R$ 0.71. Also on the 20th, the stock said goodbye to the Ibovespa index.

With US$ 2.2 trillion (R$ 11.4 trillion) in assets under management, Capital Group has stakes in other Brazilian companies such as mining company Vale and BR Malls. About the rest of the slice in Americanas, the manager gave no signs of what she intends to do.

Zeroed

Earlier, TIAA, one of the largest teachers’ pension funds in the United States with US$ 1.1 trillion in assets, practically zeroed its stake in Americanas amid the retailer’s crisis. From 6.05% it held in the company, it dropped to 5% and, subsequently, to 0.14%. The operation was carried out through the North American manager Nuveen, responsible for the transactions for TIAA, on the 18th, a trading session before the request for judicial recovery.

The situation at Americanas is also of concern to the giant BlackRock, with about 5% of the company’s capital, according to a source who preferred not to be identified. For now, the world’s largest asset manager has yet to act on the case.

Reply

wanted by Estadão/Broadcast, Grupo Estado’s real-time news system, BlackRock stated that it does not comment on investment in “individual companies”. The report also contacted Capital International, which did not comment on the remaining slice at Lojas Americanas. TIAA was approached in recent days, but did not comment on the case. Americanas also did not speak on the subject.

In a note, Americanas says it is a century-old retailer, which provides a broad service to the population and has a strong social commitment to bring affordable products to its 53 million customers. The company continues to seek a short-term solution with its creditors, in order to maintain its commitment as a generator of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, broad social impact, source of production and stimulus to economic activity, in addition to being a relevant payer of tributes. Americanas hopes that the creditors will also be committed in the search for solutions.