The free fall of Americanas shares, after the revelation of a BRL 20 billion hole in its balance sheets, caused a completely unusual situation: the retailer was worth, in the last week, less than the business created by the group, in the years 1980, to manage the chain’s properties, to São Carlos.
The inversion of positions, observed between the 19th and 25th, is surprising considering the distance that both had until recently. On January 11, when Americanas reported a R$ 20 billion accounting shortfall that led it to judicial recovery, the chain was worth 11 times more than São Carlos on the Stock Exchange. In 2020, the peak of the virtual retailer stock boom during the pandemic, the difference reached 50 times. Now, they fluctuate at similar values, although the retailer ended the week slightly above, after recovery.
São Carlos is valued at R$842.4 million; Americanas, at BRL 1.083 billion – in 2020, it surpassed BRL 100 billion.
The table shows not only the erosion of the giant’s market value, but also the progress of the real estate business, the result of the strategic look, until then admired, of the trio Jorge Paulo Lemann, Beto Sicupira and Marcel Telles, partners of 3G capital and main Americanas shareholders.
Together, the three carried out one of the biggest Brazilian capitalist offensives around the world, by buying relevant slices in names like Kraft Heinz, Burger King and the owner of Budweiser. Until last year, the trio occupied the top of the list of billionaires in the country, with a combined fortune of around R$ 160 billion.
Growth
São Carlos began operating in 1989 under the umbrella of Americanas. The initial focus was to buy and manage shopping centers to support the network’s expansion in the interior of the country. In the late 1990s, the division incorporated street stores, logistics centers, and other company properties, and was separated from the group.
The idea would have come from Beto Sicupira, according to journalist Cristiane Correa, in the book Sonho Grande, about the rise of the trio. The executive was seen as obsessed with cutting costs at the retailer, a brand that became famous in the companies managed by the group.
Separated, São Carlos went public on the Stock Exchange and walked with its own legs. It left the focus on stores behind and bet on more robust businesses, such as corporate towers and convenience centers (strip malls, in market jargon). Today, the group is one of the largest in the office sector on the B3, with 123 properties, valued at R$5.5 billion.
Among them is the emblematic João Brícola building, in the center of São Paulo, famous for housing department stores, an attribute for which it inherited the nickname of Mappin building. There is also a tower in the Faria Lima region occupied today by Editora Globo. São Carlos shares are down 20% in the month, but nothing close to the 88% of Americanas. Sought, the company did not respond to the interview request.
Control
The São Carlos real estate company is controlled by the Sicupira, Telles and Lemann families, with just over 53% of the capital. Clan representatives also sit on the board of directors: Jorge Felipe Lemann and Marc Lemann, sons of Jorge Paulo, as well as Christian Telles, son of Marcel.
Last year, the company recorded R$ 213 million in revenues and a loss of R$ 70 million, according to data accumulated up to the third quarter. As a comparison, in the same period, Americanas had a net revenue of almost R$19 billion and a loss of around R$450 million.
São Carlos still carries values of the 3G management model, such as the “owner’s culture”, and occasionally does business that refers to its origin. At the end of 2021, for example, it paid almost BRL 400 million for 41 street stores in Pernambucanas.
More recently, the group started a new business front by entering residential leasing. “The residential income sector is one of the largest markets in the world, the largest real estate sector in the United States. Here, it is growing and has a segmented nature”, he said to the Estadão/Broadcast the president of São Carlos, Felipe Goes, on the occasion of the launch.
The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.
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