Brazil Judicial Recovery Filings Ease as Corporate Debts Get Bigger
Brazil · INSOLVENCY
Key Facts
- —Latest month Serasa Experian counted 60 judicial recovery filings in April 2026, involving 141 companies.
- —Direction March 2026 had 82 processes and 184 companies, so April marked a clear fall.
- —Year to date The first four months of 2026 produced 254 judicial recovery processes.
- —Record year Brazil logged 977 processes and 2,466 companies in 2025, the series high.
- —Rates Brazil’s rate committee cut the Selic to 14 percent on 5 August 2026.
Serasa Experian’s latest month shows fewer cases, while the largest Brazilian debtors get bigger.
Brazil’s monthly count of court-protection cases fell in April 2026, the latest month Serasa Experian has published. Yet the judicial recovery filings that do reach court now carry far bigger debts.
Brazil’s insolvency count turned down in April
Serasa Experian, Brazil’s largest credit bureau, keeps the country’s reference series on corporate insolvency. Its latest published month is April 2026, released on 12 August 2026.
Brazil recorded 60 judicial recovery filings that month, involving 141 registered companies. March 2026 had produced 82 processes and 184 companies.
That is a fall of about 27 percent in a single month. Bankruptcy petitions dropped too, from 80 in March to 55 in April.
The first quarter of 2026 had already delivered 194 processes. Adding April brings the year to 254 processes across four months.
Bankruptcy petitions involved 58 companies in April, against 83 in March. The two series moved down together.
Why the year-on-year comparison does not work
Serasa Experian rebuilt its methodology during 2026, and that breaks the run of comparable numbers. The series now separates court processes from the tax-registered companies inside them.
One process can carry a dozen registered entities, so the two counts move differently. A clean year-to-date comparison with 2025 is therefore not available.
The indicator also runs with a three-month reporting lag, because courts publish late. April data only reached the public in August 2026.
April 2025 was reported as 167 requests under the older count. Set against April 2026’s 141 companies, that gap is suggestive rather than conclusive.
Serasa Experian notes that one process can involve several tax registrations, and that its phases shift over time. That is why the bureau now reports both numbers side by side.
The record the new series still shows
Brazil logged 977 judicial recovery processes during 2025, the highest reading in the series. Those cases swept in 2,466 companies.
Processes rose 5.5 percent on the 928 recorded in 2024. The company count rose 13 percent, from 2,182.
That divergence is the point, because cases are getting wider as well as more numerous. Groups now enter court with long chains of subsidiaries attached.
Agriculture accounted for 30.1 percent of the companies in 2025, and services 30.0 percent. Commerce took 21.7 percent and industry 18.2 percent.
The 2025 total sits well above the 2,182 companies recorded in 2024. It is the highest company count in the bureau’s series.
Small firms still make up the bulk
The headline cases are large, but judicial recovery filings are overwhelmingly a small-business story. Serasa Experian’s most recent published size split makes that plain.
In April 2025 micro and small companies accounted for 132 of 167 requests. Medium firms took 18 and large firms only 17.
That is close to 80 percent of the caseload in the smallest bracket. The bureau has not published an equivalent size split under its 2026 method.
Small firms rarely reach the financial pages, yet they set the level of the series. The listed names set its value.
The sector split keeps rotating
Services led April 2026 with 45 companies in judicial recovery filings, ahead of commerce at 43. Agriculture followed with 31 and industry with 22.
Agriculture is the sharpest mover in the whole series. April 2025 counted 94 agricultural companies, against 31 a year later.
Bankruptcy petitions ran the other way round by sector. Industry led with 27 companies, then commerce at 18 and services at 12.
January 2026 had shown agriculture on top with 41 companies. The rotation between sectors has been fast and hard to read.
Commerce has climbed steadily up the table through 2026. It sat third in January and second in April.
Fewer cases, far larger debts
The other half of the picture is size, and here 2026 has been extraordinary. Four listed groups have carried billion-dollar restructurings through Brazilian courts this year.
Grupo Casas Bahia sought court protection on 16 August 2026 over R$17.3 billion (US$3.33 billion). A São Paulo judge ordered a preliminary inspection before deciding whether to accept it.
Braskem filed an extrajudicial recovery on 24 August 2026 covering about US$10.9 billion of financial debt. The court cleared that process on 28 August 2026.
Ambipar has been under court protection in Rio de Janeiro since October 2025, over R$10.48 billion (US$2.02 billion). Its creditors failed to reach quorum at an assembly on 25 August 2026.
Grupo Pão de Açúcar, listed as GPA, has avoided court protection altogether. It filed an extrajudicial recovery in March 2026 covering R$4.57 billion (US$878 million).
Interest rates are the common thread
Brazil’s rate-setting committee, the Comitê de Política Monetária, cut the Selic on 5 August 2026. The benchmark fell 0.25 percentage point to 14 percent a year.
It was the fourth consecutive cut of that size, and the vote was unanimous. The committee still warned that inflation risks were higher than usual.
Fourteen percent is a cut, but it is not cheap money. Firms that fund stock and receivables with credit still pay a punishing carry.
Serasa Experian’s chief economist, Camila Abdelmalack, cautioned against reading April as a turn. She cited high interest rates, restricted credit and slowing activity.
She has also argued that elevated rates will persist through 2026. That keeps debt-servicing costs pressed against thin cash positions.
What to watch from here
The next data point is May 2026, due under the same three-month lag. It will show whether April was a pause or a turn.
RGF, a corporate restructuring consultancy, counted a 20.4 percent rise in retail judicial recovery filings. That covers the first half of 2026 against the same period of 2025.
Watch the company counts as closely as the process counts, because the gap measures how wide each case runs. Watch the size split too, once Serasa Experian republishes it.
Conversions here use the central bank PTAX selling rate of 5.2005 reais per dollar. That was the rate published for 28 August 2026.
Brazil’s courts publish case data slowly, so the picture always arrives late. Anyone reading April’s number in August is reading a four-month-old economy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many judicial recovery filings did Brazil record in April 2026?
Serasa Experian counted 60 processes involving 141 companies. That was down from 82 processes and 184 companies in March 2026.
Is corporate distress in Brazil rising or falling?
The monthly count fell in April 2026, yet 2025 set a record for the series. A methodology change means clean year-to-date comparisons are unavailable.
Why does Brazil’s insolvency count matter to foreign investors?
It prices credit risk across supply chains, retail and agriculture. The count also tracks how far high interest rates have travelled into company balance sheets.
Connected Coverage
Casas Bahia Wins Creditor Shield in Judicial Recovery
Sources
- www.serasaexperian.com.br
- www.serasaexperian.com.br
- www.serasaexperian.com.br
- www.serasaexperian.com.br
- www.demarest.com.br
- timesbrasil.com.br
- www.otempo.com.br
- www.migalhas.com.br
- www.poder360.com.br
- conteudos.xpi.com.br
- conteudos.xpi.com.br
- visnoinvest.com.br
- www.cnnbrasil.com.br
- www.bcb.gov.br
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