10 years ago, Allied () suffered a severe blow. The Federal Government had just reduced the term of the “Lei do Bem”, a tax benefit that exempted PIS and Cofins from electronic products and put the company’s expansion plans into question. The technology logistics and retail company was implementing a store expansion and inventory increase plan.
The scenario today is very different: after taking R$890 million in tax credits with the judicialization of the anticipated end of the “Lei do Bem”, the company added more than R$1 billion to its annual revenue with an international operation in 17 Latin American countries based in Miami, in the United States, amid the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump.
It all started at the invitation of Apple (), reports Silvio Stagni, CEO of Allied. The iPhone developer wanted Allied to replicate the same model as the distribution partnership signed by the companies in Brazil in countries such as Mexico and Uruguay.
Large manufacturers of electronic devices tend to have a very small customer base. “In Brazil, Apple must have around six retailers. Samsung, around 50 retailers. We sell to 600. We buy from these manufacturers and sell to those they don’t sell to”, explains Stagni.
The idea of the operation in Latin America is to reproduce the same model, but with an adaptation. Unlike countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Argentina (where the company also operates), which have national production of Apple devices, a large part of the markets in which Allied sells its products are supplied via Miami, where equipment produced in Asia arrives.
In a statement in 2024, when the new line of business began, Allied announced to the market that it expected to sell R$600 million in the new line — an increase of approximately 10% in the company’s revenue. Four months later, the value was updated to R$1 billion. Before the end of the year, the company announced a forecast of R$1.3 billion to R$1.5 billion on the international front.
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A blow came in the first quarter of 2025, when United States President Donald Trump. Allied’s headquarters are in one of the so-called “Foreign Trade Zones”, special trade zones in which there are no import tariffs to supply foreign markets.
“We are exempt from any tax declared by Trump there, but when he applied the tariffs in the first quarter of last year, the purchasing bureaucracy for manufacturers changed completely,” says Stagni. “It was a practically lost quarter.”
In the first quarter of 2025, net revenue in the international arm was R$155 million, against a history normally above R$300 million per quarter. The unit recovered throughout 2025, with R$305 million in net revenue in the second quarter and R$408.2 million in the third quarter of the year.
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Physical stores in decline
In addition to its distribution line, the company also operates in retail, operating 100 of Samsung’s 220 stores in Brazil. This value was already higher. Until the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020, the number reached 180.
In other words, it is estimated that 30% of the cell phone market was online, a figure that currently reaches 45%. Furthermore, online shopping has made consumers accustomed to comparing prices, which puts pressure on prices in physical stores.
Since the first quarter of 2025, Allied has recorded consecutive declines in revenue across the business line. In the third quarter of 2025 it reached R$116 million, a drop of 8.6% versus the same quarter of the previous year after the sale of 12 points of sale in Paraná.
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“By reversing the logic of reducing the number of stores, we increased revenue per point of sale. In 2020, we sold R$206 thousand per unit per month. In 2025, we sold R$436 thousand per month”, says Stagni. He explains that the specialization of salespeople has improved the added value of sales.
“For every two cell phones, we sell a wearable, such as watches and headphones. Two accessories such as film or cover per cell phone. For every ten cell phones, one is sold with insurance”, he points out.
Between the “Lei do Bem” and the R$890 million in tax credits
Founded in 2001, almost the entire history of Allied in its first decades was accompanied by the “Lei do Bem”, a tax benefit that basically reset the PIS and Cofins rate on certain electronic products, created to encourage the population’s access to technology.
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In the wake of the fiscal adjustment measures adopted by the Dilma Government in its last months before impeachment, the management issued a Provisional Measure revoking the tax benefits of the “Lei do Bem” from 2016 onwards under the argument of a gain of R$6 billion in revenue. Until then, the exemption would last until 2018.
“As market demand would increase for certain products, the manufacturer prepared for greater production capacity”, points out the CEO of Allied. “There is a return calculation: over how many years this higher demand will pay for itself. We had stock for a much higher level of investment and, overnight, prices increased with the end of the exemption.”
In addition to the impact of rising prices on demand for electronics, Allied planned to open 45 stores and kiosks in shopping centers. Under the argument that the abrupt change in public policy would have had a financial impact on the business, the company filed a writ of mandamus at the time to protect its right to exemption until 2018.
This case became final and unappealable at the beginning of 2025: a case that generated R$890 million in tax credits for the company. “We estimated that it would take around six years for these credit rights to become money. So, we decided to go the other way and sell to a fund at a discount”, says Stagni.
At a discount of more than R$500 million, the company sold the credits to IA Fundo de Investimentos em Direito Creditórios, managed by Itaú. The business generated R$320 million in net income: “We distributed a large part of the value to shareholders. Last year we paid R$130 million in Interest on Equity (JCP), plus R$180 million in capital reduction. R$310 million were distributed to shareholders.”
The distribution helped to take Allied’s dividend yield — profitability of investments paid by a company — to 44% in 2025. With R$617.7 million in cash in September 2025, the company believes that the resources in tax credits would not need to be used to boost businesses such as international expansion itself.
