Rial cites lack of transparency and problems in Americanas reports

The former chief executive of Americanas Sergio Rial participated in a closed conference this Thursday morning (12) about the accounting problems disclosed the day before by the company that indicate a hole in the company’s accounts of at least R$ 20 billion.

At the conference, organized by BTG Pactual and broadcast online to a limited number of participants, Rial said that, despite being in charge of Americanas for only 9 days, he found signs related to failures to identify bank financing that should have been identified as debt.

“One of the first things that caught my attention is why in the circularization letters to the banks this does not appear as a debt”, said Rial, referring to Americanas financing contracts aimed at paying suppliers.

The day before, the company disclosed a material fact with few details stating that in a “preliminary” analysis it identified accounting “inconsistencies” that add up to 20 billion reais, but that it believes that “the cash effect of these inconsistencies is immaterial”.

In his speech, broadcast only in part on the BTG Pactual channel on YouTube, Rial stated that he identified “signs that perhaps the level of transparency and perhaps the willingness of the management itself to want to talk about problems and challenges were not as fluid in the organization as it should”.

Americanas shares indicated a strong fall this Thursday, with the opening auction showing a drop of at least 50%. The movement dragged other companies down, such as Ambev, Via and Magazine Luiza.