Ministry of Justice notifies Americanas and asks for explanations about inconsistency in accounting

Senacon (National Consumer Secretariat), of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, notified Americanas asking for clarification on the crisis of inconsistencies in the company’s accounting entries in the amount of R$ 20 billion.

The secretariat seeks to understand what are the immediate impacts on consumers, what are the medium and long-term impacts and what are the policies and channels for resolving eventual conflicts for consumers.

The deadline for response is five working days, counting from the date of receipt of the notification, which was made on Tuesday (17).

Such as Sheet revealed, Americanas should file a request for recovery in court in the next few days in the amount of approximately R$ 20 billion. This is the estimated amount that the reference shareholders would have to inject into the company to save it, but, according to people who participated in the discussions, they did not accept it.

The value may still change, depending on the judge’s assessment of the request for judicial recovery and negotiation with creditors.

The group of reference shareholders is formed by the trio of billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Beto Sicupira and Marcel Telles. Together, they own 31% of the company.

This Monday (16), S&P Global downgraded Americanas’ credit rating from “B” (on the global scale) and “brA-” (on the Brazilian national scale) to “D”, which means a default situation (default). ).

The decision came after the retailer obtained an injunction, on Friday (13), to protect itself for 30 days against early maturity of debts, a period that can be used to seek an agreement with creditors or file for judicial recovery.

Fitch had also downgraded Americanas’ credit rating, on the global scale, from “BB” to “CC”, and from “AA+(bra)” to “CC(bra)” on the national scale, two levels above the default threshold. (“D”).