Brazilian retailer Americanas SA appointed its third Chief Executive Officer in six weeks as it looks to navigate the firm through bankruptcy and continue operations while negotiating a hefty debt load.
The Americanas board named Leonardo Coelho Pereira to the top job, according to a filing late Wednesday. He replaces Joao Guerra who will return to his duties as head of human resources. Guerra had replaced Sergio Rial, who on Jan. 11 blew the whistle on what he called 20 billion reais ($3.8 billion) of "accounting inconsistencies" after less than two weeks on the job.
Pereira has been a partner at Alvarez & Marsal since 2011 working in restructurings and has experience as an executive in multinational companies in South America and Europe, Americanas said in the filing. He spent 12 years at Siemens AG, according to his LinkedIn
In addition, Vanessa Claro Lopes, an independent board member at Americanas who had been tapped to help lead an audit group to investigate the accounting issues, has left the committee and will remain on the board. She'll be replaced on the committee by Antonio Luiz Pizarro Manso.
Americanas sought bankruptcy protection after its shares tumbled 77% in one day and dollar bonds sank to 15 cents on the dollar following the reporting of the massive accounting hole. The company has since secured up to 2 billion reais in debtor-in-possession financing to boost liquidity and insure day-to-day operations as its financial adviser Rothschild & Co. negotiates with creditors.
The Rio de Janeiro-based company has 42.5 billion reais of outstanding debts with about 9,000 companies and individuals.
The retailer's largest shareholders, the billionaire trio of Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Sicupira, have said they were unaware of the accounting issues and have pledged to support up to 1 billion reais of the DIP financing. Sicupira sits on the board.
Rothschild's Brazil partner Luiz Muniz is scheduled to meet with bankers on Thursday for talks.
— With assistance from Caio Rinaldi and Vinícius Andrade
