Brazilian retailer Americanas cuts 1,400 more jobs; deal with creditors hinges on five-year review

Brazilian retailer Americanas continues to slash spending as it negotiates a recovery plan with creditors to settle BRL 50 billion (USD 10.2 billion) in debt — BRL 42.5 billion reported in January when the company filed for bankruptcy protection, plus BRL 7.6 billion in debt between the network retailer and other group companies. This last week, according to a report by the court trustee, the retail giant laid off another 1,450 employees and closed three more stores. 

Since January, the company has laid off more than 9,500 workers. However, the company reported that its staff has a “seasonal” nature, meaning its number of employees varies greatly throughout the year. The company currently has 33,948 workers — it had 43,123 at the start of 2023.

The report also details the closure of three more stores, bringing the total number of units closed since the company’s accounting scandal broke — the biggest in Brazil’s history — up to 74. The company still has 1,806 stores across Brazil.

Today, real-time news service Broadcast revealed that creditors are waiting not only for the release of the company’s delayed earnings reports for Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, but also for a five-year accounting review that Americanas’ reference shareholders — Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, who own about 30 percent of the company — would have promised creditors. Without it, any agreement on a recovery plan would be fragile, sources told the news service.

The retail giant filed for bankruptcy protection at a Rio de Janeiro business court in January, acknowledging nearly BRL 43 billion in short-term debt. Since then, the company has been trying to negotiate a way out with more than 9,400 creditors. 

The latest announced plan includes a capital injection by reference shareholders of BRL 10 billion to BRL 12 billion and two potential additional capital increases of up to BRL 1 billion each. The amount to be injected by reference shareholders includes emergency financing of BRL 2 billion, of which Americanas has already used half.

In June, Americanas admitted that its executives had falsified balance sheets over an extended period of time. The admission came as a result of the preliminary findings of an independent investigation into the company’s accounting woes and amid a congressional inquiry. 

Last week, two of these former executives signed plea agreements to detail exactly how the retail giant cooked its books.

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