Odebrecht changes president on the eve of the key assembly

Odebrecht shifts command at a crucial time for the company. Current group president Luciano Guidolin will be replaced by Ruy Sampaio, currently chairman of the board. The company has a meeting of creditors about the judicial recovery scheduled for Thursday, the 19th.

Guidolin is expected to remain a member of the board of directors of operating companies controlled by the Odebrecht Group. The role of chairman of the board of directors will be transferred to José Mauro Carneiro da Cunha. It will be the first time the board will be chaired by an independent member.

The announcement was made by Emilio Odebrecht, agent of Kieppe, Odebrecht’s family-owned holding company, after a meeting of the company in Salvador, BA.

Turning point

The decision was made on the eve of a meeting of creditors to discuss the group’s bankruptcy plan. According to Emílio Odebrecht, negotiations with the main creditors of Odebrecht’s judicial reorganization plan and 19 other holdings have advanced.

“We therefore have a legitimate expectation that the plan will be approved in the coming weeks,” says the businessman. With the approval of the plan, the company hopes to complete “a fundamental cycle for the survival of the Odebrecht Group,” says the businessman. The company seeks to prepare plans for the restructuring of 55 billion reais in debt.

In June, about three years after being hit by the effects of a deep recession in Brazil and the investigations of the Lava Jato operation, Odebrecht formalized its request for judicial reorganization in one of the largest lawsuits of its kind in history. In total, the conglomerate has debt of 98.5 billion reais , part of which may be restructured and others backed by Braskem shares.

Odebrecht has not yet been able to design a plan to be accepted by creditors. In October, Odebrecht’s creditors, mainly banks, objected to the recovery plan . Most banks argued that the plan was too vague, with no discount on the nominal value of the debt or time to repay.

The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) filed with the court a challenge to the plan presented earlier, as it was unable to save the company from the risk of possible bankruptcy and asked for a new plan to be prepared.

The Federal Savings Bank also filed for bankruptcy of the group, one of the main targets of the Lava Jato operation.

While the company faces bank discontent, it also deals with the attempt by Marcelo Odebrecht, Emilio’s son and arrested in Operation Lava Jato, to return to presidency of the group’s business.

Marcelo visited the company in mid-September, when his sentence was changed from house arrest to semi-open regime. He then wrote a letter to his family saying he was willing to return to the group and blamed his successors for the group’s economic hardship.