Grupo Prime, owner of Prime Agro Produtos Agrícolas, requested judicial recovery in the Paraná Court and reported total liabilities of R$ 790.2 million, according to process documents obtained by BroadcastGrupo Estado’s real-time news system. Founded in 2013 in Toledo (PR) by brothers Paulo José and Luiz Eduardo Montans Braga, the group operates around sustainable agriculture, biological management, soil regeneration, technical monitoring and productive development of crops and livestock, has 263 employees and serves more than 500 customers in 20 states.
The recovery request was filed on Tuesday, 16th, and involves 11 applicants linked to the same family economic group: six companies and five rural producers. In addition to Prime Agro, from Toledo, the process includes Agropecuária Caiana, Juruá Participadora de Bens, Acaia Serviços Administrativos, Agropecuária Alterosa, Agropecuária Candeia and producers from the Montans Braga family.
The defense asks that the restructuring be processed jointly, with procedural and substantial consolidation, a mechanism that allows the group’s assets and liabilities to be brought together in the same process and, if approved by the court, present a single judicial recovery plan.
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In the petition, the group says that the crisis was caused by a combination of high financial debt, an increase in the cost of credit, liquidity restrictions and worsening market conditions in agribusiness. The defense cites, among the pressure factors, the rise in the Selic and the CDI, the fall in the prices of agricultural commodities such as soybeans and corn, adverse weather events, the retraction of rural credit and the downward cycle of livestock farming.
According to the group, a relevant part of the obligations was assumed during a period of operational expansion. This movement began to put pressure on cash flow when revenues were affected by the worsening of margins in the field and the increase in debt. The defense claims that the crisis is financial and cyclical, not operational, and that judicial recovery is necessary to reorganize liabilities and extend obligations.
Of the total debts recognized by the group, R$397 million are credits subject to judicial recovery and R$394 million are listed as extra-bankruptcy, a category that brings together obligations that, as a rule, do not automatically enter the payment plan to creditors.
The majority of the debt subject to recovery is in the class of unsecured creditors, those without real guarantee, with R$282 million distributed among 311 creditors. The real guarantee class totals R$106.1 million and has only one creditor listed: Banco do Brasil. Labor and accident credits total R$2 million, while micro and small companies appear with R$6.5 million.
In the extra-competitive part, the largest creditor indicated is Prime Agro Fundo de Investimento em Direito Creditórios, with R$190 million. Santander also appears, with R$36.8 million; Caixa Econômica Federal, with R$32 million; BTG Pactual, with R$19.9 million; Itaú Unibanco, with R$16.4 million; Canal Companhia de Securitização, with R$16.3 million; Bradesco, with R$13.2 million; and Insumos Milênio/Terramagna Fiagro, with R$12.8 million. The list includes operations with fiduciary guarantees, receivables, rural properties, vehicles, equipment, trucks, inventory, aircraft and servers.
The group states in the process that the operation depends on farms, equipment, logistical structure, vehicles, trucks and an aircraft to maintain technical and commercial service in rural areas. Therefore, it requests that part of these assets be recognized as essential to the activity, which could prevent removal or seizure during the period of judicial protection, if recovery processing is granted.
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The process is still in its initial phase. The next step is to analyze the regularity of the documentation and the requirements for the recovery to be processed together. If the request is accepted, the Court must appoint a judicial administrator, open the deadline for presenting the recovery plan and suspend actions and executions against the group for 180 days, the so-called stay period.
For César Borges, partner at Arake, Tomazette, Borges & Glicério Advogados, the case is part of an environment of greater difficulty for resales and companies linked to agricultural inputs. “Resales of agricultural products have been experiencing difficulties in recent years. We have other examples of recoveries with high debts in the sector”, he stated.
According to him, the 2nd Specialized Court should analyze the documents, the possibility of joint processing and the eventual presentation of a single plan. “Once the requirements are met, the court will appoint a judicial administrator, grant a suspension of executions for 180 days and decide on the essential nature of the assets,” he said.
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