Investor may lead to loss with American and B3

The investor who has been assisting since late afternoon (11) the melting of the value of Americanas may charge the loss in court in individual or collective proceedings, via entities, or in the B3 Market Chamber, the Brazilian scholarship.

This last option, however, should be for qualified investors and funds with financial capacity to pay the high referee costs – only referee fees start at $ 850 per hour worked.

In the assessment of lawyer Gabriel de Britto Silva, legal director of Ibrac (Brazilian Institute of Citizenship), the best paths for minority to charge the losses will be collective actions, whether presented by entities or the prosecutor, or in individual proceedings that,, Depending on the value, they may be presented even in special civil courts (for shares of up to 20 minimum wages, or R $ 24,000, in current amounts, there is no need to be represented by a lawyer).

The accounting scandal of Americanas, one of the most important Brazilian retailers, has made more doubts than certainty since it burst. The statement to the market was registered in the CVM system at 6:32 pm on Wednesday and speaks of “inconsistencies of the dimension of R $ 20 billion on the base date of 09/30/2022.”

Sergio Rial, president of Americanas, and André Covre, director of investor relations, announced in the same statement that they left the company.

For the SA Panel Column, the president of Abradin (Brazilian Investor Association), Aurelio Valporto, said he studies triggering the Public Prosecution Service and the CVM (Securities Commission) to seek protection measures for shareholders of Americans who, in his assessment , were deceived.

At CVM, the entity defends the investigation of responsibility for inconsistencies in the balance sheets, and with the MP, the possibility of reimbursement. On Thursday, the commission announced that it has opened two administrative proceedings to investigate the company.

An executive of the capital market points out that both the fourth and what the Sergio Rial in teleconference with investors said on Thursday do not signal the origin of the problem, if it was a debt classification error (and that would not have an impact on the balance ), for example.

Damage to investors is clear. The negotiation of American papers were suspended in the morning and, when resumed, were worth R $ 2.71. The day before, he had closed the day at $ 12. Almost a year earlier, on February 15, 2022, it cost $ 35.42.

Now, it is missing whether there was fraud, if it was reckless management, if it was audit error and even if this error was due to fraud. “For now there is no certain answer because it is not known what happened,” says lawyer José Roberto Meirelles, from the Silveiro Advogados Capital Market area.

For Gisela Coimbra, audit manager of Russell Bedford Brazil, there is the right to repair to be sought, but that will require the investor a careful analysis of the problem.

“Putting me in the role of the investor and strictly looking at the relevant fact [o comunidade feito na quarta], they make it clear that there is nothing right yet. It’s a statement that, instead of giving peace, has made the investor even more restless, “he says.

Investor decisions, says Gisela, are made from information presented in balance sheets and the number and explanatory notes, which give the context to the accounts.

The AMEC (Capital Market Investor Association) said in a statement that its associations and the market in general are apprehensive and perplexed with the magnitude of accounting inconsistency.

“Amec understands that there is a need for timely and more objective manifestations of the company’s governance bodies, in particular, its board of directors,” says the entity in a statement signed by Fábio Coelho, executive president.

Meirelles, from Silveiro, remembers the case of IRB Brasil, which in 2020 toppled after the disclosure of a letter from the Squadra Investment, in which the manager said she saw signs that point to standardized (recurrent) profits inferior to accounting profits reported in the statements Company’s financial.

The IRB crisis resulted in a public civil action presented by Ibrac, in which it demands the payment of indemnity for material damages to shareholders. The institute’s action points out that the IRB action was quoted at R $ 34.37 in January 2020, sinking to R $ 5.60 in mid -March of the same year. This Thursday (12), it is negotiated in the range of $ 1.15.

Individual investors also triggered B3 individually through the Arbitration Chamber.

Gabriel de Britto Silva, from Ibraci, says that S/AS legislation provides for controversy between shareholders and companies to be resolved on the arbitration.

He argues, however, that the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) has already decided, in case involving Petrobras and the Union, that, without the agreement of the shareholder on the obligation to subject the cases to arbitration, the judiciary would be the correct means to discuss the disagreements.

This was the argument defended by Ibraci in the action started to charge the damage in the case of IRB Brasil. The entity says it is evaluating whether it will take the same path compared to Americanas and also awaits the advancement of investigations into the fiscal scandal.