President of Marisa resigns amid debts of almost R$ 600 million

The fashion retail chain Marisa announced in a material fact, on the night of this Tuesday (7), the resignation of the chief executive Adalberto Pereira Santos and the independent member of the board of directors Marcelo Adriano Casarin.

Santos, who had been at the retailer since 2014, had taken over in March last year. Marisa’s commercial vice-president, Alberto Kohn de Penhas, will assume the executive presidency on an interim basis, while the company selects a new president. A new board member, in Casarin’s place, will also be named.

In the statement, Marisa said she had hired BR Partners to advise her on the process of renegotiating her financial debt and Galeazzi Associados to “support her in improving the cost structure”.

At the end of September, Marisa had an adjusted net debt of R$566.1 million, according to the retailer’s third quarter balance sheet. The company’s shareholders’ equity reached R$ 974 million.

In the third quarter results conference call, on November 11 of last year, Santos had complained about the cost of funding (raising third-party funds) and the increase in defaults as factors for the greater indebtedness in the period (up 7.9% in the annual comparison). The net loss of recoveries on the store’s card soared 281% between one quarter and another, reaching R$48.3 million.

At the same time, the Selic rate at high levels (today at 13.75%, a year ago in double digits) makes it more difficult for companies to carry debts – especially those that finance their consumers.

Tougher rules for granting credit should become a tonic from now on for retailers, as an effect of Americanas. The banks, the main creditors of the company, which entered into judicial recovery on the 19th with debts of BRL 43 billion, already show an increase in provisions in the fourth quarter of 2022 on behalf of the company.

It was like this with Santander last week and with Itaú this Wednesday (8).

Shein effect and CVM investigation

In addition to these factors, Marisa faced the Shein effect: the Asian online retailer, which opened two pop-up stores in Brazil last year (in Rio and São Paulo), and is responsible for leading fashion app downloads in the country , has become a strong competitor for the Brazilian online sales.

In the conference call for the third quarter, Santos commented that Marisa was reviewing the strategy for the digital channel on account of Shein.

In the third quarter, the company had net revenue of R$ 632.4 million (including retail operations and Mbank, the financial services platform), and a loss of R$ 97.5 million. The disclosure of the results for the fourth quarter was only scheduled for March 15th.

The retailer was born as Marisa Bolsas, founded in 1948, in São Paulo, by Bernardo Goldfarb. For many years, the company was led by his son, Marcio Goldfarb, who became a defendant in a CVM (Securities and Exchange Commission) lawsuit, according to the newspaper O Globo.

Member of Marisa’s board, Marcio Goldfarb reportedly bought shares in the company less than 15 days before the release of the balance sheet for the first quarter of 2022, held on May 11 of last year. The practice is prohibited in the capital market. In a statement released on the 3rd, the retailer claims to have provided information to the municipality about “negotiations with shares issued by the company carried out by Mr. Marcio Goldfarb”.

Marisa has more than 340 stores in all regions of the country. With the slogan “From a Woman to a Woman”, created in the 1980s, the retailer is aimed, in particular, at the B and C classes.