The interim CEO of Americanas SA, João Guerra, released an open letter addressed to “friends of Americanas”, stating that “the stores are still open and the shelves are full. Deliveries guaranteed.
“For our customers, the result of what we are doing together is that the experience in stores, on the website and in the app remains exactly the same.”
Guerra also says that the approval by the Justice for a financing of up to R$ 2 billion will help the company to “maintain the normal course of business, its cash flow and reinforce its liquidity”.
The executive stresses that the company is reaffirming its commitment – “which we have already assumed on other occasions” – that wages, benefits and labor rights are management priorities. “Everything goes – and will go – exactly as contracted. The unions that represent our people are being informed every step of the way as decisions are made. We will maintain this frank dialogue,” he says.
In the letter, the CEO begins by thanking him and saying that “we haven’t lost our nerve”. According to the executive, the company gained more than 100,000 new followers on social networks and, as a result, now has more than 13 million on Instagram.
“In a word, our customer’s response was affection. It is this market strength that gives us the confidence to overcome obstacles. At the end of the path we started, we will probably be a different company. And we will get there always taking care of all our people, who made and will make Americanas strong.” He also says that Americanas’ note on the Reclame Aqui website (for consumer complaints against companies) continued to be “highlight in the sector”.
The CEO anticipates that the company is already preparing for Easter.
Judicial recovery
The company faces a crisis since, on January 11, it communicated to the market accounting inconsistencies around R$ 20 billion, leading the retailer to file a request for judicial recovery days later, which was accepted by the Justice.
The company disclosed debts of BRL 42 billion and 7,720 official creditors, as requested by the Justice of Rio de Janeiro. The process became the 4th largest judicial recovery in Brazil.
More than half of the company’s debt is with the largest Brazilian banks. There are more than R$ 22 billion divided among just nine banks. Deutsche Bank accounts for the largest exposure to the retailer, of US$ 1 billion dollars (R$ 5.2 billion).
In addition to banks, there are even technology companies such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The document disclosed also contains debts with carriers, airlines, smaller service companies and thousands of individuals. Among the creditors to be received, there is even the Brazilian Ambev, which belongs to the same reference shareholders of Americanas: Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira.
Diapers, shampoo, chocolate and gummy candies in the shape of dentures that cost a few reais add up to a millionaire debt with all the company’s major suppliers. Among the big brands, one of the debts that draws the most attention is with the South Korean Samsung, which has R$ 1.209 billion to receive from Americanas.
The tax debt, according to the Attorney General of the National Treasury, Anelize Almeida, is R$ 657 million.
The retailer also filed a request for recognition of the judicial recovery process in the United States, known as “Chapter 15”, which works with protective effects (notably the suspension of payments to creditors) ensured in its judicial recovery process in Brazil.
The retailer hired Alvarez & Marsal to help coordinate the bankruptcy process.
This Tuesday, around 50 outsourced employees of Americanas were dismissed. The layoffs took place in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), São Paulo (SP) and Porto Alegre (RS).
Today, the company also filed a request in court to obtain the maintenance of electricity, water and sewage services in the process that deals with its judicial recovery.
On Friday (27), the trade union centrals filed a lawsuit in court to protect the labor rights of the approximately 44,000 employees of Americanas. For this, the action asks that the Justice extend the responsibilities for the crisis in the retailer to the main partners and requests the blocking of BRL 1.53 billion of the assets of Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Telles for eventual payment in shares labor.
On Thursday (26), the Justice of São Paulo authorized the search and seizure of e-mails from the directors and members of the Board of Directors and Audit of Americanas from the last ten years. The decision is a response to a request made by Bradesco.
The B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, excluded Americanas bonds (AMER3) from all its indices since Monday (23). In its last trading session listed on the Ibovespa, the company’s shares closed the day at R$0.71. In the trading session prior to the Material Fact of January 11, the quotation was R$ 12.
Read the letter in full:
CEO letter
American friends,
Over the past thirty days, despite the constant impact of news that makes us anxious, we have done together what we know best: we work with dedication for our customers. I want to start here, therefore, with a thank you. We all know the seriousness of the moment. Not because of that we lose the claw. Our answer was more effort and more focus. Thank you very much.
For our customers, the result of what we are doing together is that the experience in stores, on the website and in the app remains exactly the same. The stores are still open and with full shelves. Deliveries guaranteed. We protect our greatest
ally and friend at all times: the customer.
The response we received could not be more touching. In our social networks we gained more than 100 thousand new followers. On Instagram alone, we are already more than 13 million. Our note on the Reclame Aqui website continued to be a highlight in our sector,
with RA 1000 certification.
In a word, our customer’s response was affection. It is this market strength that gives us the confidence to overcome obstacles. At the end of the path we started, we will probably be a different company. And we will get there always taking care of all our people, who have made and will make Americanas strong.
I want to reaffirm here a commitment that we have already assumed on other occasions: wages, benefits and rights are the management’s priority. Everything follows – and will continue – exactly as contracted.
The unions that represent our people are being informed every step of the way as decisions are made. We will maintain this frank dialogue.
We know that much of the company’s future depends on factors that we do not entirely control. To take care of these different work fronts, we immediately brought in experienced and qualified teams. Global consulting firm Rothschild & Co is handling the bank deal, essential for our future; consultancy Alvarez & Marsal, for carrying out the Judicial Reorganization process (RJ) and an independent committee, for verifying the facts. These work fronts follow their course in parallel, with each one of them always respecting the limits that Judicial Recovery requires of us and focusing on the solution and on the recovery plan.
To reinforce all of this, we received the important contribution of Camille Loyo Faria, who arrived in February as Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer and brings valuable experience in the financial reorganization of companies.
While the efforts of the recovery plan continue, I can promise that we, here, will continue to keep the flame lit at the maximum, with partners and customers more and more engaged every day. As an example, in addition to complying with fortnightly transfers to
sellers, we announced a pilot project for weekly payments to our tenants for sales made on our platform. On another front, we got the approval, by the judge of RJ, of a DIP financing of R$ 1 billion made by the reference shareholders, which could reach R$ 2 billion, and which will help the company to maintain the normal course of business, your cash flow and reinforce your liquidity.
With that, we are confident to say that we have already accelerated the preparations for our Easter, an event that is so symbolic for Brazilians and so meaningful for us Americans.
We will continue to do what we know best.
Together We Are American
João Guerra, interim CEO of Americanas SA
Source: CNN Brasil
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
