Americanas suppliers activate commercial credit insurance

The disclosure of the first list of Americanas’ creditors this Wednesday (25) brought a list of suppliers of different sizes – from electronics manufacturer Samsung (with which the retailer owes R$ 1.2 billion) to Nestlé (R$ 259 million), in chocolates and biscuits, Nadir Figueiredo (R$ 52.1 million), in cups and glassware, to Cromus (R$ 7 million), in gift packaging.

In all, R$ 41.2 billion are owed to 7,967 creditors, who are part of the first list presented in the judicial recovery process. Part of the suppliers, especially the medium and large ones, have commercial credit insurance: a product offered by insurers to protect them from possible defaults by retailers.

One of the main companies in the sector, Allianz Trade, estimates that the amount covered by credit insurance with Americanas suppliers is between R$2 billion and R$3 billion, involving Allianz itself and other large companies in the sector. Suppliers have already started calling insurers.

“The granting of the judicial recovery allows the insurance to be activated”, says Felipe Tanus, director of credit at Allianz Trade in Brazil.

To grant insurance, the insurer assesses each of the retailers that are customers of the suppliers, who in turn receive a credit limit to be insured based on this analysis.

In the case of Americanas, they are suppliers of different sectors: from sweets and stationery to electronics (such as cell phones and televisions). The executive does not reveal who they are, nor the total number of clients insured by Allianz. But he claims that they are medium and large companies, with annual revenues above R$ 20 million.

All have already indicated that they intend to activate the insurance, which involves the payment of a deductible, the amount of which is equivalent to 10% of the total insured, on average. Payment takes place within 30 days.

“It is a common type of insurance in Europe, which has become recurrent in Brazil”, says Tanus. According to him, for the supplier, the cost is around 1% of the value of the insured portfolio, whose contract involves protection with several retailers.

To close the insurance, the supplier needs to meet the policies recommended by the insurer. “A cell phone supplier, for example, wants to sell R$ 10 million in devices to Americanas. But the insurer can only approve R$ 7 million, according to the retailer’s assessment. The supplier, then, can allocate the other R$ $3 million worth of products to another retailer, lowering their risk,” says Tanus. “Hardly does a customer assume the risk on their own.”

Americanas, says the executive, was considered a middle-grade retailer by the insurance company. “It had an adequate financial performance for the sector”, he says. Events such as the retailer’s should require an adjustment in the “credit appetite” of the market as a whole, according to Tanus.

“But insurers grow in times of crisis, which reinforce the need for the product”, he says.

Of the total R$41.2 billion in debts of Americanas indicated in the first list of creditors, R$41 billion are owed to the unsecured class (unsecured credit), R$109.5 million to the micro and small companies class, and R$64.8 million refer to the working class.

Lenders who have credit insurance are listed as unsecured – since insurance is not considered a guarantee for credit preference. According to Tanus, after paying the indemnity to the client, the insurer becomes a creditor of Americanas (the name of the supplier is removed from the list and the name of the insurer is added).