Sendas Distribuidora S.A.

What it is

Sendas Distribuidora, formerly Companhia de Distribuição Alves Furtado, operates entirely in the cash-and-carry model — selling food and non-food goods to restaurants, pizzerias, grocery stores, supermarkets, bars, schools, hospitals, and individual shoppers under the Assaí brand. Its shelves carry over 9,000 items, and the network runs hundreds of stores and 12 distribution centres across Brazil.

The model sits exactly between a supermarket and a wholesaler — built for high-volume, low-cost shopping, especially for customers who need to restock inventory or stretch household budgets. The company’s Passaí co-branded card, issued with Banco Itaú, has about 3 million cards in circulation and accounts for roughly 5% of sales.

Who owns it

Sendas was founded in 1974 and was partially acquired in 2007 by Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição (CBD), itself controlled by France’s Casino Group, which completed a full acquisition in 2011. The original founder was Rodolfo Jungi Nagai.

Assaí was spun off from CBD and listed independently on B3 in 2021; Casino’s Brazilian holding subsequently began selling down its stake, and in December 2024 the company also announced its intention to voluntarily delist its American Depositary Shares from the NYSE.

The shareholder register today is dominated by institutions: EODHD data shows institutional investors hold roughly 93.6% of the float, with insider holdings at under 1%. In November 2025, funds linked to the Muffato retail family acquired a stake in Assaí, adding a notable Brazilian strategic investor to the mix.

Who runs it

Belmiro de Figueiredo Gomes serves as Chief Executive Officer and is also a member of the board of directors. Vitor Faga de Almeida is Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations.

Both have been consistent faces on earnings calls across 2023–2025.

In December 2025 the board approved a governance overhaul: board size was reduced, executive compensation was cut, and a new “poison pill” trigger — a provision that kicks in if any single investor accumulates too large a stake without board approval — was introduced.

The money, in plain words

Assaí collects about R$77.3 billion (US$15.0 bn) (~$15bn) a year from customers — but keeps less than 1 cent of profit on every real of sales, a net profit margin of roughly 0.9%, which is extremely thin even by food-retail standards. Revenue has grown 16.2% over two years (2023–2025, our calculation), yet net profit fell from R$769m (US$149 mn) in 2024 to R$497m (US$96 mn) in the most recent year as interest costs on heavy debt weighed on the bottom line.

The balance sheet tells the central story: the company carries R$26.8bn (US$5.2 bn) (~$5.2bn) in total debt against R$5.9bn (US$1.1 bn) (~$1.1bn) in cash, leaving net debt of roughly R$20.9bn (US$4.0 bn) (~$4.0bn, our calculation) — a legacy of converting dozens of hypermarket sites into new Assaí warehouses after the CBD spin-off. Management is actively working to bring that debt load down, targeting a net-debt-to-operating-profit ratio of 2.6× by year-end.

Return on equity — how hard the business works for its owners — stands at 12.4%, reasonable for a grocer under this debt burden. At a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.8×, the stock prices in recovery, not euphoria.

What it is doing now

In its most recently reported quarter (Q4 2025), revenue rose 5.2% and free cash flow reached R$2.8bn (US$542 mn). Strategic priorities include automation, cost control, expansion into drugstore and pharmacy services, private-label products, and digital partnerships.

For 2026, the company updated its capital spending target to approximately R$700 million (US$135 mn), a significant step down from peak expansion years, as management shifts emphasis from opening new stores to making existing ones more profitable. Assaí was named by Interbrand for the sixth consecutive year as one of the 25 most valuable brands in Brazil in 2024.

What to watch

• Deleveraging pace. Net debt of ~R$20.9bn (US$4.0 bn) is the defining risk; every quarter that free cash flow grows faster than interest charges materially changes the investment case.
• Margin recovery. A net margin of 0.9% leaves almost no room for error; watch whether store maturation and private-label growth can push that number meaningfully higher.
• Casino / shareholder overhang. The French parent’s continuing sell-down has weighed on the share price; the pace and destination of any further stake sales matters.
• NYSE delisting. The December 2024 announcement of a voluntary NYSE ADS delisting narrows the stock’s global investor base and could affect liquidity for international holders.
• Macroeconomic sensitivity. Brazil’s high interest rate environment directly inflates the company’s borrowing costs; any shift in the Selic rate moves the needle quickly on profits.

This is news, not investment advice.