(FOLHAPRESS) - The Casas Bahia Group filed a request for judicial recovery at the 2nd Court of Bankruptcy and Judicial Recoveries in the São Paulo Court late this Sunday night (16), and declared a debt of R$ 17.3 billion.
With debt of R$ 17.3 billion, Grupo Casas Bahia requests judicial recovery
(FOLHAPRESS) - The Casas Bahia Group filed a request for judicial recovery at the 2nd Court of Bankruptcy and Judicial Recoveries in the São Paulo Court late this Sunday night (16), and declared a debt of R$ 17.3 billion. The order...
Of the debts, R$16.4 billion are with unsecured creditors (i.e., without collateral), R$754 million with labor creditors and R$154 million with micro and small businesses. The group informs in the request the dismissal of around 3,000 employees, out of 30,117 employees it has, and the closure of almost 300 stores - according to the document, Casas Bahia has...
- The group informs in the request the dismissal of around 3,000 employees, out of 30,117 employees it has, and the closure of almost 300 stores - according to the document, Casas Bahia has...
- The petition comes about two years after the retailer approved an extrajudicial recovery that restructured R$4.8 billion in financial debts in April 2024, which it exited three months later.
- In the document sent to the Court, the company points out that the crisis is related to heavy investments in technology, logistics and digital stores started in 2019, added to the shocks of...
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The order encompasses ten companies in the holding, including the owner of the Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio brands, the e-commerce Extra.com and the furniture manufacturer Bartira, as well as logistics and technology subsidiaries.
Of the debts, R$16.4 billion are with unsecured creditors (i.e., without collateral), R$754 million with labor creditors and R$154 million with micro and small businesses.
The group informs in the request the dismissal of around 3,000 employees, out of 30,117 employees it has, and the closure of almost 300 stores - according to the document, Casas Bahia has more than 700 physical stores, and Ponto Frio, more than 65.
The petition comes about two years after the retailer approved an extrajudicial recovery that restructured R$4.8 billion in financial debts in April 2024, which it exited three months later.
In the document sent to the Court, the company points out that the crisis is related to heavy investments in technology, logistics and digital stores started in 2019, added to the shocks of the pandemic, which paralyzed physical stores.
According to the petition, although the digitalization plan began when the Selic was at a historic low of 2% per year, between the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, the jump in interest rates to 15% per year disorganized the company's financial structure.
Also according to the request for judicial recovery, the retailer's model is highly dependent on working capital, inventory financing, risk transactions with suppliers and direct credit to the consumer.
With the rise in interest rates and inflation, there was an increase in the cost of credit, compression of the income of families with lower purchasing power and an increase in defaults on installments and cards, in addition to a significant increase in competition from digital platforms, says the petition.
The document points out that the initiatives of the so-called Transformation Plan, started in 2023 with cutting expenses, reducing inventories and closing 55 loss-making stores, generated only occasional relief.
EMERGENCY MEASURES
In the initial petition, Casas Bahia requests a series of urgent measures to avoid the immediate stoppage of operations.
The group's biggest concern lies in the risk of early expiration of more than R$10 billion in financial and commercial contracts. The company states that, if banks retain credit card and Pix guarantees, up to 60% of the monthly cash inflow would be drained immediately, making the business unviable.
The network calls for the immediate suspension of executions for 180 days, prohibition of early expiration of commercial contracts and maintenance of the regular flow of receivables, preventing retentions by creditor banks.
It also requests the mandatory delivery of already purchased goods that are in transit with suppliers and the release of more than R$750 million in deposits of labor resources made in actions prior to the request to reinforce operational cash.
LOSS OF R$ 10 BI
This Sunday, the network announced a loss of R$10.1 billion in the quarter, compared to a loss of R$555 million in the same period last year. As a result, Casas Bahia's net worth is negative at R$8.1 billion. This means that, if the retailer sells everything it has in assets and rights to receive, there will still be billions left to pay creditors.
The retailer's market value on the stock exchange is R$660 million. Casas Bahia is no longer controlled by the Klein family. Today the company's reference shareholder is the manager Mapa Capital, which took over 85.5% of the company's capital in August last year.
With the loss reported this Sunday, Casas Bahia records its eighth consecutive quarter of losses.
Since the last time it reported a profit, in the second quarter of 2024, the same period in which it entered into extrajudicial recovery, the retailer has accumulated negative results that have increased in size.
If between the third quarter of 2024 and the same period of 2025 the company had losses of hundreds of millions of reais, the loss escalated and exceeded R$1 billion in the periods that followed, exposing the company's financial crisis.