Americanas S.A.

What it is

Americanas entered court-supervised restructuring in January 2023 after the discovery of a massive accounting fraud. Before that crisis it was Brazil’s sixth-largest retailer, combining brick-and-mortar stores with a large e-commerce presence and marketplace services connecting third-party sellers to consumers.

The company ended 2025 with 1,470 stores in total — 906 conventional and 564 in the express format — a deliberate contraction from more than 1,587 units at end-2024 as management closed money-losing locations.

Who owns it

The trio of billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and Marcel Herrmann Telles regained outright control of Americanas after converting subscription warrants from a R$24 billion (US$4.7 bn) capital increase that was raised partly to cover the accounting shortfall. They converted warrants sufficient to hold exactly 50.01% of voting capital.

The controlling trio is contractually required to maintain at least a 50% stake for three years from the court plan’s approval in February 2024. Lemann, Sicupira, and Telles first became controlling shareholders of Lojas Americanas in the early 1980s and held that position for roughly four decades.

Who runs it

Fernando Dias Soares was elected as the new CEO, taking office on 1 October 2025. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, was previously CEO of Domino’s Pizza in Brazil, and built much of his career at AB InBev, where he led the non-alcoholic beverages division in Brazil and ran business units in Colombia, Peru, and Mexico.

As of 1 December 2025, Sebastien Durchon replaced Camille Loyo Faria as CFO and investor-relations director. Faria, a former Morgan Stanley and Bank of America executive, had joined in February 2023 at the height of the crisis and led the restructuring that produced the first positive operating profit in the second quarter of 2025.

The money, in plain words

Sales have shrunk by about R$2.5bn (US$489 mn) ($490m) over two years — from R$14.76bn (US$2.9 bn) ($2.89bn) in fiscal 2023 to R$12.31bn (US$2.4 bn) ($2.41bn) in the most recent annual period — a fall of 17% (our calculation), as the company shed unprofitable digital volume and sold non-core brands. The most recent annual result is still a net loss: –R$271m (US$53 mn) (–$53m), a net margin of –2.2% (our calculation); on a trailing twelve-month basis EODHD puts the loss at –0.81% of sales, the narrowest red figure since the crisis began.

The balance sheet carries R$5.58bn (US$1.1 bn) ($1.09bn) of gross debt against R$879m (US$172 mn) ($172m) of cash — net debt of R$4.70bn (US$920 mn) ($920m) (our calculation) — a heavy load for a company whose market value is only R$817m (US$160 mn) ($160m). The prior-year net income of R$8.28bn (US$1.6 bn) ($1.62bn) was not a trading profit; it reflected one-off accounting gains from debt-for-equity conversions in the restructuring plan, which is why the stated P/E of 1.55× tells you almost nothing useful about underlying value.

What it is doing now

In March 2026, Americanas completed the sale of its Uni.co lifestyle brands unit and simultaneously filed with the court to close its judicial-recovery process — the most significant milestone since the 2023 crisis broke. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the net loss shrank 92.5% year-on-year to R$44m (US$9 mn), and adjusted operating profit reached R$276m (US$54 mn), up 1.9% on the prior fourth quarter.

Digital merchandise volumes fell 74.6% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025, while physical-store merchandise volumes held essentially flat at R$3.4bn (US$666 mn) — reflecting a deliberate retreat from loss-making online marketplace activity in favour of the physical estate. The Uni.co sale — covering the Imaginarium, Puket, Love Brands, and Casa Mind fashion and lifestyle brands — went to BandUP!

as part of the company’s strategy of divesting everything outside its retail core.

What to watch

• End of court supervision. The formal closure of judicial recovery, filed in March 2026, must still be confirmed by the court. Exit unlocks normal access to credit and removes the stigma that has weighed on the stock.
• Debt load vs. cash generation. Net debt of R$4.70bn (US$920 mn) ($920m) against a market cap of R$160m (US$31 mn) means the lenders, not the shareholders, are the main risk-holders. Watch whether the company can turn operating profit into real free cash.
• Digital or physical? Management is leaning hard into physical stores and shrinking the digital footprint. That is the opposite of the industry direction; whether it improves profitability or just shrinks the business is the central strategic question.
• Controlling trio’s lock-up clock. The three-year obligation to hold 50%+ expires around February 2027. Any signal of a sale or dilution before then would move the stock sharply.
• New leadership settling in. CEO Fernando Soares and CFO Sebastien Durchon have both been in post less than a year. Their first full-year strategy will be watched closely for credibility.

This is news, not investment advice.