Americanas case start battle among Brazil’s wealthiest men, but may harm the poorest people
The company’s billionaire owners and creditor banks start a legal battle, while bankruptcy risk threatens 43,000 jobs
The billionaire crisis of the company that owns Americanas Stores created a public conflict among some of the wealthiest men in Brazil. On one side, there is Jorge Paulo Lemann – the country’s wealthiest man, according to Forbes magazine – and his partners, who are also billionaires. On the other side, banker André Esteves, a BTG Pactual bank partner and the seventh richest Brazilian.
Esteves' bank lent at least 1.2 billion reais to Americanas, which is owned by Lemann. However, the company obtained an injunction that allows it not to pay the loan until it manages to draw up a plan to solve its debts.
As of last week, Americanas itself declared to authorities that the company owes 40 billion reais. It was revealed days after Americanas announced it found “accounting inconsistencies” of about 20 billion reais in the balance sheets that the company presented to investors and creditors – including BTG.
However, the bank did not like the announcement. BTG took legal action to reverse the judgment in favor of Americanas and, thus, recover the funds. BTG asserted that the "inconsistency" detected was actually a fraud committed by Lemann and his partners Marcel Telles and Beto Sicupira, owners of 3G Capital and majority shareholders of Americanas.
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