O, having as a precedent condition the approval of the request for judicial recovery made by the retailer this morning. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.
According to Bernardo Ouro Preto, co-founder and CEO of St Marche for 24 years, the decision to enter into judicial recovery was taken in the face of uncertainties brought by one of the company’s creditors, who requested the extinction of the extrajudicial recovery, increasing the difficulties in the network’s cash flow and delaying the sale of the company.
“The transaction with Cencosud is closed and agreed, but there is a condition precedent which is the end of judicial recovery,” said Ouro Preto, in an interview with Broadcast.
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According to the interview, the acquisition will ensure that St Mache continues to exist and grow alongside a company that is one of the largest global players in retail. Cencosud recorded US$17.4 billion in global sales in 2025 and has more than 1,440 stores in six countries. In Brazil, the Chilean group already operates brands such as Prezunic, Giga Atacado, GBarbosa and Bretas.
Even after the sale, Ouro Preto will remain CEO of St Marché at least until the conclusion of the judicial recovery process, which could take around nine months. This request was made in the early hours of last Wednesday (24) and comes just eight months after St Marche concluded an extrajudicial recovery process, in October last year. At that time, the sale to Cencosud was already being negotiated.
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Next steps
In the coming days, R$25 million in additional capital will be invested to reinforce cash, so that the operation can continue running. Meanwhile, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) begins to analyze the acquisition. The transaction will only be completed with the approval of the federal agency.
St Marche suffered a setback with the sudden change in Brazilian interest rates. After the pandemic, when Selic was at a low of 2%, the chain implemented an expansion plan and went from 21 stores and R$700 million in revenue in 2021 to 32 stores and R$1.3 billion in revenue in 2024. During this period, however, the basic interest rate went from 2% to 15%, impacting the chain’s cash flow, which had to delay payments to suppliers and suffered from shortages.
With a debt of R$528 million, the network had to file for extrajudicial recovery to renegotiate the debts and received a capitalization of R$90 million through a DIP, a type of loan made to companies in financial difficulty, from the American fund L Catterton, owner of 70% of the network, which contributed R$45 million at the beginning of the extrajudicial recovery, and the second contribution by BTG.
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