Leak shows Uber lobby, defaults skyrocket in Brazil and what matters in the market

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Those involved in ‘Uber Files’

The thousands of Uber files leaked to the press show how the ride-hailing giant relied on political lobbying from big-time people in the battle against taxis during its early days.

The more than 124,000 records – most of them emails from the company’s top management – were leaked by an Irish lobbyist to the Guardian newspaper and shared with several outlets.

Uber says its “past behavior was not in line with current values” and that it is a “different company” today.

What the documents reveal:

Macron’s helping hand: the current French president was Minister of Economy when Uber debuted in Europe, in Paris, in 2014. At the time, the city was the scene of violent protests by taxi drivers.

• Macron that year signed a decree relaxing the requirements for licensing Uber drivers.

Proximity to Former EU Commissioner: Neelie Kroes was responsible for regulating the big tech companies that operated in the bloc, but was in negotiations for a position at the company even before the end of her term.

• An internal Uber email advised the team not to discuss the informal relationship with the flight attendant externally.

What the quotes say:

• Through a spokesperson, Macron said that his roles had led him to meet and interact with many companies involved in the transformation of the service sector, which needed to be facilitated by unblocking administrative and regulatory obstacles.

• Kroes, a former EU commissioner, denies having had any “formal or informal role at Uber” before May 2016, when her old job’s quarantine expired.

Free Market advances in credit supply

MercadoLibre announced this Monday (11) that it raised with Goldman Sachs $233 million (R$ 1.24 billion) to offer credit to individuals and small companies in Brazil and Mexico.

In numbers: of the total, $106 million (R$ 566.8 million) will be used in Brazil. Goldman has already placed $485 million (R$ 2.6 billion) between 2021 and 2022 in the credit arm of Mercado Livre.

Mercado Pago: in addition to credit, fintech offers digital wallet, bank account, etc.

• The business is the company’s priority in Brazil this year, at least in terms of investments. Of the R$ 17 billion promised by the company, a “significant part” of the amount will go to Mercado Pago.

Portfolio: the idea of ​​Mercado Livre is to offer credit to companies with little access to this service in the financial system.

• The company has already accounted for 175 million consumer loans and working capital for small and medium-sized companies, with a total value of more than US$ 7.55 billion (R$ 40.3 billion).

record default

In May, the country reached the highest number of people in debt since at least 2016. This is what data recorded by Serasa and released this Monday (11) show.

In numbers: were 66.6 million of people with overdue accounts in May, the highest number in Serasa’s historical series, which began in 2016. In comparison with the same month last year, there was an increase of 4 million negative names.

What explains: The scenario of an increase in default is expected by specialists in view of the effect of high interest rates on the economy and persistent inflation, which make credit more expensive and reduce the purchasing power of Brazilians.

• Despite the improvement in the number of jobs created in the labor market, the average income of Brazilians still shows signs of fragility and also makes it difficult to pay debts.

In what the Brazilian owes more:

• The largest volume is in the banking and cards segment, with 28.2% of the total, according to the Serasa indicator.

• Next are the basic bills like water, electricity and gas, with 22.7%.

• In third place are the retail and financial sectors, with 12.5% each one.

Twitter loses BRL 17 billion after Musk drops deal

Twitter lost almost $3.2 billion (R$ 17 billion) in market value on the first day of trading of the shares since Elon Musk made his withdrawal from the deal official.

In numbers: the network’s shares ended this Monday (11) down by 11.47%at US$ 32.65 (R$ 175), the lowest value in two months and far from the US$ 54 (R$ 289) that Musk had offered through the platform.

Legal battle: Pressure to sell the shares was influenced by shareholder expectations that the dispute between Musk and Twitter in the courts will be costly and time-consuming.

Negative day on the markets: the fear of recession once again brought down global stock markets and gave strength to the dollar.

• Ibovespa fell 2.07%, at 98,212 points. The drop was driven by the expectation of new Covid control measures in China, which impact the demand for Brazilian exports, especially iron ore.