SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian retailer Americanas SA has presented to a court its post-bankruptcy reorganization plan, it said late on Monday, marking potential progress to recovery after disclosing billions of dollars in accounting irregularities.
Americanas, which entered bankruptcy protection after disclosing accounting “inconsistencies” worth 20 billion reais ($3.78 billion), presented the first draft of a legal recovery plan to a court in Rio de Janeiro state.
Under the plan, the retailer’s ‘reference shareholders’, the billionaire trio that founded 3G Capital, would inject 10 billion reais into the company through a capital increase, a measure Americanas had confirmed in early March.
Within 60 days of the capital increase, the retailer would hold a reverse auction to settle debts with unsecured and financial creditors who “opt to receive full settlement of all or part of their claims at a discount of not less than 70% of the claim amount,” it said.
The firm also proposed a repurchase of unsecured credits, as well as the issuance of simple debentures, among other debt restructuring options.
Americanas will put up for sale assets including Hortifruti/Natural da Terra, Grupo Uni.co as well as its airplane, aiming to use at least 2 billion reais from the proceeds to reduce its remaining debt.
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“With this the company intends to reduce its market debt, post-restructuring, to 4.9 billion reais,” it said, far below the 42 billion reais previously acknowledged during the bankruptcy proceedings.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier, Carolina Pulice and Andre Romani;Editing by Chris Reese, David Gregorio, Sonali Paul and Louise Heavens)