Billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann decides to return to Brazil because of the Americanas affair

Americanas’ key shareholders – Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Beto Sicupira – have decided to land in Brazil and personally negotiate a solution for the Americanas affair.

Since Jan. 11, the company has faced a widespread credibility crisis after Sergio Rial, former CEO of the retailer, resigned and revealed that the company has a R$20 (US$ 3.9) billion hole, called by him “cash inconsistencies”.

According to CNN, Swiss-Brazilian billionaire Lemann is returning to Brazil, and Sicupira and Telles are already there.

Americanas is facing receivership with R$43 billion in debt.

The retail chain is among the companies that started the empire created by the trio of investors.

Currently, they control major global players such as, for example, the beer company Ambev – the owner of Budweiser – and the fast food chain Burger King.

The brands are two icons of the global market.

On Thursday, Feb. 2, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva compared Lemann to Eike Batista – a businessman who was also once at the top of the list of billionaires in Brazil but went bankrupt amid astronomical debts.

“This Lemann was sold as the ultimate successful businessman on planet Earth,” Lula said in an interview on Rede TV! “He was the guy who financed young people to study at Harvard to form a new government. He was a guy who spoke out against corruption every day. And then he commits a fraud that could reach R$40 billion.”

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