The year has begun and the big economic issue of 2023 has nothing to do with government or politics. The big story is the hole in one of the best-known stores among Brazilians, Americanas. The company is in the process of judicial recovery, after the Justice accepted its request last Thursday. And while the company tries to get back on its feet, the stores remain open on the streets.
Americanas debt is an account with many “zeros”. The company itself admits that it is BRL 43 billion, much higher than the BRL 20 billion initially announced. But what is this gap? How much does the company owe and to whom?
the hole
Basically, the gap came with a problem recording the debts that the company had with suppliers and banks. In the operation, the company buys merchandise from suppliers and, before the sale, it settles this debt with a loan from the bank.
With this, the supplier receives and the company later pays the banking institution with the interest. That’s great. The problem was when registering these debts.
Instead of registering the financial debt, Americanas registered the debt with the supplier in the balance sheet – which did not bear interest. And this over several years, which caused the company’s billionaire gap.
Many of Americanas’ debts have variable terms in the contract, and this makes their situation worse. The interest rate increased and the deadlines decreased and, thus, the account reached R$ 43 billion.
creditors
Americanas owes this entire amount to 16,000 creditors, including companies, banks and even individuals. In all, 30% of the company is made up of a group of three shareholders: Carlos Alberto Sicupira, Jorge Paulo Lemann and Marcel Telles.
When the crisis erupted, the three famous businessmen negotiated with banks and offered BRL 6 billion to reinforce the company. But the banks found little. They wanted at least R$ 10 billion to start talking, and the parties did not reach an agreement.
It is worth mentioning that large investment funds are creditors of Americanas, such as Black Rock – the largest in the world -, but there are also many small investors involved in the story. From the big ones to those with little cash, there are around 140,000 investors.
Stores remain open
And meanwhile, physical stores remain open and working normally. The same goes for online spaces. The Procon of São Paulo itself sought the company about this, which said: you can buy without fear.
The consumer protection body even made a survey of complaints against the company in recent days and compared with previous years. And the volume of problems did not change significantly.
In addition to this guarantee, the IDEC (Brazilian Institute for the Defense of Competition) said that the company’s judicial recovery does not change the rights that consumers have in relation to the company. That is, rights such as meeting deadlines or exchange in case of defect of the purchased product are still valid.
Judicial recovery
In the process of judicial recovery, the company will try to renegotiate the debts. So, they will call the banks and suppliers to try discounts and new deadlines. This is all a process that usually takes months, sometimes even years.
Meanwhile, the company may try to sell some assets. For example, few people know that Americanas has other stores inside Brazilian malls. She owns Imaginarium, Puket, Natural da Terra and Hortifruti, as well as half of the convenience stores in the country with BR Mania.
This whole process will take some time, but it is important for the company to recover, as we are talking about direct and indirect jobs.
Source: CNN Brasil
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