Americanas sells owner of Imaginarium and Puket to BandUP! for R$152 million

The remainder of the sale value will be paid to Americanas in five annual, equal and successive installments, with the first due in one year. Until the payment of each installment, the values ??will be adjusted by the CDI, taking as a reference the period between the closing date of the operation and the date of actual payment. Americanas has been in judicial recovery since January 2023, after revealing billion-dollar accounting inconsistencies in its financial statement. The company reported having identified a hole estimated at more than R$20 billion related to the accounting of transactions with suppliers, which triggered a financial crisis and a legal dispute with creditors. Since then, the retailer has been carrying out measures set out in the recovery plan, such as the sale of assets and debt renegotiation, with the aim of reducing its debt and rebalancing its accounts. Last week, the Federal Police (PF) began the 2nd phase of Operation Disclosure, which investigates fraud in the company. According to expert technical reports, the estimate is that the damage will already reach R$54 billion. According to Camila Bomfim's blog, among the targets are Paulo Alberto Lemann — son of billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, one of Americanas' leading shareholders —, Carlos Alberto da Veiga Sicupira, Eduardo Saggioro Garcia and other names linked to financial institutions that had a relationship with the company. In a statement, Americanas stated that it was not the target of the operation and that it will continue to collaborate with the investigations. "Reference shareholders understand that the operation is part of the regular course of ongoing investigations and reiterate their commitment to fully collaborate with the competent authorities to clarify the facts, as they have been doing since January 11, 2023, when they became aware of the accounting frauds", says the document.