Americanas: all that glitters is not gold

Abstract

At the beginning of 2023, a bomb fell on the Brazilian stock market: Americanas, an almost centenary company and one of the largest retailers in Brazil, managed for more than 30 years by the trio Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles, and Beto Sicupira and which until then were considered a reference in Brazilian capitalism, announces to the market, in a Relevant Fact, that “accounting inconsistencies” estimated at R$ 20 billion had been found in its suppliers account. At this moment, when the case is still unfolding before us and attracting immense media attention due to the superlative numbers - thousands of points of sale, 45,000 jobs, billions in debt with suppliers, and a loss of 8 billion reais in shares - it is paramount that the academy qualifies the debate and discusses its impacts and developments in a structured way in the classroom.

Keywords:
Governance; Corporate fraud; Organizational ethics; ESG