Brazil’s Casas Bahia Wins 180-Day Shield From Creditors Before Court Even Accepts Case

BRAZIL · BUSINESS

Casas Bahia, Brazil’s biggest furniture and appliance chain, won early protection from creditor lawsuits on Friday 28 August, as a São Paulo court started its 180-day shield before even deciding whether to accept the company’s judicial recovery request.

A shield granted before the case is even accepted

The decision came late on Friday afternoon, around 4 pm in São Paulo. Judge Tainá Maria Leonardo de Oliveira, of the city’s 2nd Bankruptcy and Judicial Recovery Court, moved the start of the so-called stay period forward.

The stay period is the heart of a Brazilian judicial recovery. For 180 days, no creditor can sue the company, seize its assets or force early payment of contracts.

Normally that clock only starts once a court formally accepts the recovery request. Here the judge set 19 August as day one, the date she had already granted emergency protection.

That leaves 171 days of shield ahead. It also means the countdown runs while the court is still checking whether the case can proceed at all.

Why the judge moved early: a run on the company’s cash

The company told the court that the news itself caused the damage. Once the filing became public, creditors raced to freeze whatever they could.

Court blocks reached about R$9 million (US$1.7 million) within a few days. The company called the situation a risk of imminent asset depletion.

Judge de Oliveira agreed that waiting would be dangerous. Leaving the group unprotected during the court’s initial review, she wrote, could destroy the very recovery the law exists to allow.

Friday’s order reached beyond the company’s rivals in court. Card-payment firms Cielo, Getnet and Redecard must release ordinary sales proceeds within 48 hours and stop building extra reserves just because of the filing.

Those firms handle the money when a customer pays by card. They had been holding back part of it, fearing future cancellations.

The judge gave them five days to hand over detailed statements. The daily fine for non-compliance is R$100,000 (about US$19,400), capped at 30 days.

Bank BTG Pactual received a similar order. It must restore full access to the group’s current accounts within 24 hours, under the same fine.

The R$422 million fight with Banco do Brasil that went nowhere

The week also brought an odd side battle with state-controlled Banco do Brasil. On Monday 24 August, Casas Bahia asked the court to make the bank return R$422 million (US$81.7 million).

The retailer said the bank had debited the money on its own. The bank had stood guarantor for bonds the company gave suppliers Apple and insurer Mapfre, and paid them out after the filing became known.

Banco do Brasil flatly denied the story. It told the court its statements show no completed debit between 21 and 24 August, only one attempt on 25 August that was reversed for lack of funds.

The bank went further and accused the retailer of bad-faith litigation. It argued the company could have checked its own consolidated statement before filing.

Casas Bahia later dropped the request, and the court never ruled on the merits. The episode shows how tense relations between the retailer and its banks have become.

How Brazil’s best-known appliance chain got here

The group filed for judicial recovery on Sunday 16 August. It listed R$17.3 billion (US$3.35 billion) in debt and more than 28,000 creditors.

The case covers ten companies. They include the Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio store brands, the Extra.com website and furniture maker Bartira.

Of the total, R$13.3 billion (US$2.58 billion) is owed to financial creditors. About half of that sits in receivables investment funds and debentures, two common Brazilian debt instruments.

The company blames the cost of money above all. Its debt structure was designed when Brazil’s benchmark interest rate, the Selic, was 2 percent a year; it now operates under far higher rates.

This is the group’s second restructuring in two years. In 2024 it renegotiated about R$4.1 billion (US$794 million) out of court, which proved not to be enough.

Judicial recovery is not bankruptcy liquidation. It is a court-supervised negotiation meant to keep a viable company running while it restructures.

Brazilian retail keeps landing there. The collapse of rival Americanas in 2023 set the modern precedent, and the sector’s dependence on credit makes it fragile when rates stay high.

What happens next

First, the court-appointed experts must verify the numbers the company submitted. The court has approved a fee estimate of R$1.4 million (US$271,000) for that work.

Then the judge decides whether to accept the judicial recovery request at all. The 180-day shield keeps running while she does.

Creditors, meanwhile, have 15 days from the published list to confirm or contest their claims. Those who miss the deadline enter later, with fewer rights.

If the request is accepted, the company has 60 days to present a recovery plan. Creditors then vote on it, class by class, in a general assembly.

The plan is where the real fight begins. Secured creditors, fund holders and suppliers all sit in different classes with different bargaining power.

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Sources: Valor Econômico (28 August 2026), InfoMoney (19 and 29 August 2026), Folha de S.Paulo via Diário do Centro do Mundo (28 August 2026), Poder360 (26 August 2026), Migalhas (18 August 2026), Capital Aberto (21 August 2026). Exchange rate: R$5.1639 per US dollar, open.er-api.com, 29 August 2026.

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