Americanas SA shares sank further after the Brazilian retailer, whose main backers include billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, obtained a decision that paves the way for a potential bankruptcy filing, sparking a legal reaction from creditors that accuse the company of fraud, Bloomberg reported. The Rio de Janeiro-based firm said on Friday a local court granted it protection against early debt maturity and asset-seizure for a 30-day period, after which Americanas could file for bankruptcy protection.
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South America
A group representing minority shareholders on Friday filed a complaint with Brazil's securities regulator against Americanas SA after the retailer uncovered "accounting inconsistencies" totaling 20 billion reais ($3.89 billion), Reuters reported. The Abradin association said it was denouncing Americanas for what it called a "multi-billion fraud," while also asking regulator CVM to investigate the retailer's auditor, PwC.
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Shares in Brazilian retailer Americanas SA fell more than 75% on Thursday after its chief executive officer resigned citing the discovery of "accounting inconsistencies" totaling 20 billion reais ($3.9 billion), Reuters reported. Outgoing CEO Sergio Rial, who replaced Miguel Gutierrez less than two weeks ago, said in a conference call with investors he had "clearly found some very important distortions" and signals of a lack of transparency from the previous management.
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Retail sales volumes in Brazil posted in November their biggest drop in five months, government statistics agency IBGE said on Wednesday, affected by higher fuel prices and a weak Black Friday performance last year, Reuters reported. Brazil's retail sales fell 0.6% in November from October, IBGE reported, a deeper drop than the 0.3% one expected by economists polled by Reuters and the first negative reading since July.
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Brazil's inflation ended 2022 with a sharp slowdown from double-digit peaks seen throughout the year on the back of fiscal measures and an aggressive monetary policy tightening, but once again missed the government's official target, Reuters reported. The benchmark IPCA consumer price index rose 5.79% last year, statistics agency IBGE said on Tuesday. The result missed both the central bank's annual target of 3.5% and the top 5% of its tolerance band, marking the second straight year that it had done so.
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Argentina and China have formalized the expansion of a currency swap deal, allowing the South American country to increase its depleted foreign currency reserves, the Argentine central bank said on Sunday, Reuters reported. Argentina's government needs to rebuild reserves to cover trade costs and future debt repayments, and more reserves are a key objective of a major debt deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). President Alberto Fernandez announced the deal in November last year and said at the time it was worth $5 billion.
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Thousands of protesters supporting Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court in the capital Brasília Sunday, many calling for military intervention to remove Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftist leader who took office last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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U.S. managed services and cloud connectivity provider GTT, formerly called Global Telecom and Technology, has emerged from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases after more than two years of corporate and financial restructuring, BNAmericas.com reported. The company, which maintains ethernet and IP sites in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Mexico City, first filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2021. "Over the past two years, we have concentrated relentlessly on transforming our business into a customer-focused, managed services provider with a culture of continuous improvement.
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Argentina's booming shale production in Vaca Muerta, a formation that rivals the U.S.'s Permian Basin, is at risk of running out of road as infrastructure to handle the oil and gas nears capacity, threatening to put the brakes on rapid growth, Reuters reported. The government is now racing to build out infrastructure: A major new gas pipeline is set to come online mid next year, and there are plans for new export terminals near Buenos Aires. The government is also working on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) law to send to Congress hoping to stimulate investment.
After a sharp drop in Latin American deals in 2022, bankers expect a slow recovery next year, led by M&A, Reuters reported. IPOs may take longer to resume, due to high global interest rates. The volume of M&A deals in Latin America fell 35% this year, to $86 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Roderick Greenlees, global investment banking head at Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4.SA), said the total value of M&A, although lower than the record year of 2021, was within historical range in the years before.