Sequoia Logística e Transportes S.A

What it is

Sequoia Logística e Transportes S.A. is a technology-enabled logistics operator in the Brazilian market, established in April 2010 by founders Armando Marchesan Neto and Décio Honorato Alves. It picks up parcels from online retailers, sorts them, and delivers them to homes and businesses across Brazil — the physical plumbing behind e-commerce.

Its October 2020 IPO on B3 raised approximately R$1 billion (US$194 mn), deployed into acquisitions and network buildout; by end-2021 consolidated revenue exceeded R$1.8 billion (US$349 mn). That peak now feels distant: revenue in the year to end-2025 was R$593m (US$115 mn), two-thirds less than that high-water mark.

Who owns it

Asset manager JiveMauá entered 2026 accelerating a strategy that combines structured credit and corporate turnarounds, and in February completed the conversion of debt into shares, taking a 99.6% stake in Sequoia. The free float is therefore near zero, and the stock trades at just R$0.11 (US$0.02)per share.

JiveMauá injected R$45m (US$9 mn) in cash between August and November 2025, then added R$40m (US$8 mn) more in cash and converted R$215m (US$42 mn) in debt into equity; as other shareholders chose not to exercise their priority rights, JiveMauá assumed control of the company at the beginning of 2026. The founders no longer hold a controlling stake.

Who runs it

In November 2025 the board elected Leopoldo de Bruggen e Silva — who had been the company’s chief financial officer — as the new chief executive. He is now simultaneously CEO, CFO, and investor-relations director, a lean structure that reflects the company’s sharply reduced scale.

Founder Armando Marchesan Neto, who led the company for 13 years, stepped down from the top role and moved to a seat on the board of directors. His interim successor, Alexandre Rodrigues, had brought 25 years of experience from Ambev and Votorantim, but it was ultimately the CFO Bruggen who assumed permanent command.

The money, in plain words

For every real of sales, Sequoia lost 34 cents in the latest year — a net margin of –34.1% (our calculation) — and the company’s liabilities now exceed its assets, leaving owners with negative equity of R$183m (–US$36m). That means the return-on-equity ratio, normally a measure of how hard a company works your money, is not meaningful here.

Revenue fell 22.9% year-on-year (our calculation), from R$769m (US$149 mn) in 2024 to R$593m (US$115 mn) in 2025, as the company deliberately shed low-margin delivery-to-consumer business. The company returned to positive operating cash flow and improved its gross-profit margin by 42 percentage points year-on-year, suggesting the smaller, leaner business is at least covering its running costs — the first real sign of a floor.

Net debt — what the company owes banks after setting aside its R$57m (US$11 mn) cash — stands at R$304m (US$59m), our calculation, against a market value of only R$505m (US$98m). That is a heavy load for a loss-making business.

What it is doing now

The company’s stated plan is to cut its workforce to 1,850 people, focus on more profitable clients, operate just six distribution centres, and concentrate only on units that generate positive operating cash flow. That is a dramatic retreat from its pre-IPO ambition of serving nearly 5,000 towns across Brazil.

The strategic pivot away from consumer parcel delivery followed the decision by Mercado Livre and Chinese-backed platforms to build their own logistics networks, making it nearly impossible for an independent operator to compete on price. Sequoia is now refocusing on business-to-business freight and the specialised logistics of banking equipment — armoured-courier-style work that the big platforms do not want.

The most recent capital move was an R$105.9m (US$21 mn) increase approved in late December 2025, carried out not by raising new cash but by converting existing bonds into shares. Debt-for-equity swaps reduce the interest bill but dilute shareholders — in this case, diluting a float that is already near zero.

What to watch

• Path to positive net income. The company claims 2025 was its “year of transformation,” but the full-year net loss of R$202m (US$39 mn) shows the income statement is still deep in the red. The first quarter in which Sequoia prints a net profit will be the real inflection signal.
• JiveMauá’s exit timeline. The operation took the company out of the founders’ hands and placed it inside JiveMauá’s special-situations portfolio. How and when the asset manager plans to exit — sale, re-IPO, or wind-down — will determine whether minority shareholders ever recover value.
• Tax-authority deal. The company is still working through a negotiated settlement with Brazil’s federal tax authority (PGFN). The terms and size of that settlement could materially change the debt picture.
• B2B traction. The bet on business logistics and banking-equipment delivery is unproven at scale. Watch for two consecutive quarters of revenue growth before treating the pivot as a success.

This is news, not investment advice.