Americanas Restructuring Plan Foresees USD$1.8 Billion Investment plus Sale of Uni.Co Stake

Sale of Americanas assets include the Hortifruti Natural da Terra chain, and its stake in Uni.Co (ie. brands Puket and Imaginarium) and even a private aircraft owned by the entity.

Americanas store front

By: SiiLA News

03/23/2023

Publicly traded Brazilian retail giant, Americanas (BVMF: AMER3) has filed for bankruptcy with a USD$ 7.4 B restructuring plan to tackle its mounting debt of USD$ 8B (R$ 42 B). Americanas.com acquired Submarino in 2006 to form the B2W group, which has since acquired several other brands, including the recent Lojas Americanas merger in June 2021. Americanas currently operates its e-commerce platform in addition to 1,945 physical stores across Brazil.

SiiLA has been monitoring the effects of the Americanas crisis since news broke on SiiLA REsource in January about discovering accounting irregularities. Just last week SiiLA confirmed XP LOG (XPLG11) had received its February rent payment from Americanas at Golgi Seropédica in Rio de Janeiro. Commercial real estate owners across Brazil are becoming increasingly concerned about Americanas ability to honor its existing lease obligations. According to data from SiiLA Market Analytics, Americanas owned B2W/Americanas Marketplace, has operations in several logistics hubs assets owned by the FII including XPLG11, VBI Log Aratu (LVBI11), in Bahia, and Cajamar Centro Logístico – CCL (LP Bens), in São Paulo.

The purposed restructuring plan announced by Americanas includes a capital injection plus the sale of several assets. The amount of the capital injection is expected to be at least USD$1.8 B from a group of shareholders including Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Carlos Alberto Sicupira. The potential sale of Americanas assets includes the Hortifruti Natural da Terra chain, and its stake in Uni.Co (ie. brands Puket and Imaginarium) and even a private aircraft owned by the entity.

Americanas decision to file for Bankruptcy was intended to provide protection from creditors given their financial difficulties. Americanas is hopeful it can suspend and renegotiate a portion of its debts, ensuring the continuation of its operations and protecting jobs and payments to suppliers, employees, and other partners.

SiiLA will be following Americanas bankruptcy’s impact on the Brazilian commercial real estate market. Please visit SiiLA Market Analytics to learn more about our solutions or contact us at comunicacao@siila.com.br.

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