Justice accepts request for judicial recovery of Americanas

Americanas announced this Thursday (19) that it has officially filed for bankruptcy protection. The total debt listed in the filed documents is approximately R$43 billion, and involves 16,300 creditors. The petition was sent to the 4th Corporate Court of the Judicial District of the Capital of the State of Rio de Janeiro which, still in the afternoon, granted the request.

In the morning, the company had already published a statement to the market saying that judicial recovery could be requested “in the next few days or in the next few hours”, since it had only R$ 800 million in cash.

In the request sent to the Court, drawn up by Basilio Advogados and Salomão Kaiuca Abrahão Raposo Cotta, Americanas states that, within 48 hours, it will present the complete list of creditors and the breakdown of liabilities, “so that it reflects in the most reliable way possible the reality of the group’s indebtedness.”

In the petition, the company states that it will present its judicial recovery plan within 60 days, from the approval of the request, containing the “detail of the recovery means that will be adopted, demonstrating its economic and financial viability and also attaching the report of evaluation of all assets of the Americanas Group.”

To this end, it asks the Justice to order “the immediate suspension of all existing actions and executions against the applicants, for a total period of 180 days”, in addition to confirming the appointment of the judicial administrators: Preserva-Ação Administração Judicial and the law firm Zveiter.

The request for judicial recovery comes eight days after the company’s former president, Sergio Rial, signed a material fact, on the last of the 11th, which revealed the existence of R$ 20 billion in “accounting inconsistencies” in the retailer’s balance sheet, verified until the third quarter of last year. In the text, Americanas states that “it will continue to operate normally within the new rules of judicial recovery, whose one of the main objectives is the maintenance of jobs, payment of taxes and the good relationship with its suppliers, creditors and investors in general”.

The São Paulo Stock Exchange, the B3, announced that Americanas will have its securities excluded from all B3 indices, including the Ibovespa.