Americanas’ creditor recovery plan faces pushback from Banco Safra

By Sarah Lizee

Olympia, Wash., Dec. 4 – Americanas SA is facing a lawsuit from Banco Safra, which says it is trying to prevent the company and its controlling shareholders from moving forward with a deficient recovery plan, according to a Monday press release from the bank.

Banco Safra said Americanas and its controlling shareholders, Lemann, Telles and Sicupira, have proposed a recovery plan that seeks to prevent creditors from continuing to investigate causes of fraud perpetrated at the company.

“Banco Safra believes this clause is an illegal effort by the company and its controlling shareholders to avoid accountability for the fraud and are challenging the legality of the recovery plan,” the bank said in the release.

Banco Safra said the recovery plan would result in creditors being repaid a fraction of what they are contractually owed on a commitment not to litigate or investigate against the controlling shareholders and their families and other directors of Americanas.

“The controlling shareholders have the financial resources to fully repay creditors for all funds lost,” the bank said.

“Instead, as part of the recovery plan, they have proposed a capital injection that amounts to less than one third of the total value of the fraud and an insignificant amount in relation to their assets.

“In a coercive attempt to avoid fulfilling their obligations, creditors must agree to end the investigations into the fraud to benefit from this capital injection.”

Americanas is a retail chain based in Rio de Janeiro. It filed Chapter 15 bankruptcy on Jan. 25, 2023. The case number is 23-10092.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.