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Via reviews labor claims and has a loss of R$ 638 million in the 3rd quarter

Via, owner of the Casas Bahia banner and the digital bank banQi, had a net book loss of R$ 638 million in the third quarter, impacted by revisions in provisions generated by labor claims.

The company stated in a relevant fact that the average value of lawsuits grew 32% in the period 2020 to 2021 compared to the years 2019 and 2020 and that the entry of new lawsuits against the company soared 82% in the first half compared to the first half of the last year.

As a result, the company set up a provision of R$2.5 billion at the end of September for these processes, compared to a provision of R$1.2 billion in June.

This year, the founder of Casas Bahia, Samuel Klein, was the target of a series of reports denouncing cases of harassment of employees and sexual abuse that occurred at the company years ago, when the banner was not yet part of Via.

Via said in the balance sheet that the processes stem mainly from layoffs promoted by the company since 2011, in a strategy of downsizing the workforce to “improve its profitability” and that it hired a specialized consultancy to help it create an action plan on the labor lawsuits.

Although part of the lawsuits have been settled, Via said on Wednesday that “there are many cases in higher courts that cost 32% more compared to 2019 and 2020.”

With this, it started to estimate that it will have a cash impact of R$300 million to R$400 million with the processes in the fourth quarter, reaching R$1.5 billion to R$2 billion in 2022.

With the review, the company’s adjusted Ebitda was negative by R$ 342 million in the quarter, said the company.

Operational

In operational terms, Via had net income of R$101 million in the third quarter, practically in line with the positive result of a year earlier.

Via, which is investing in the creation of a sales ecosystem made up of digital and physical assets, posted a 5.7% growth in total gross sales (GMV) in the quarter, pressured by a 14.3% drop in store performance physical.

However, digital sales, own or third parties, had a GMV growth of 34.7%, to R$ 6.6 billion, increasing the participation in the group’s total sales by 12.9 percentage points, to 59.8% .

The company, which competes with rivals such as Magazine Luiza, Americanas and Mercado Livre, saw marketplace sales rise 132.8%, to around R$ 2 billion from July to September, assuming a share of total digital sales of 29.8 %, 12.6 points above a year earlier.

In these terms, Ebitda grew 6.7%, to R$ 669 million, with the margin increasing from 8% to 9.1%.

Reference: CNN Brasil

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