123 Milhas, a travel company that sold travel packages and airline tickets using mileage points and entered into judicial recovery in August 2023, is sending messages via WhatsApp with a new proposal for an out-of-court settlement to its approximately 800,000 creditors. Among the proposals is the payment of amounts due within seven and a half years and with a discount.
Group 123 includes the companies 123 Milhas, HotMilhas, Novum, Maxmilhas and LH Lance Hotéis, which have debts of R$2.4 billion in judicial recovery. The proposal, which involves giving up legal action against the company, provides for three payment options. The first is to receive the full amount, but linked to “cashback” on new purchases from the company. The second provides for the payment of the amount with a 40% discount in 12 semiannual installments, that is, six years, starting in 18 months, which means a total period of seven and a half years. The third, for smaller amounts, provides for the payment of up to R$450.00 in installments over five years, starting in two and a half years.
The proposals are not very different from those foreseen in the plan presented in court. For Julio Moretti, founder and CEO of Neot Tecnologia, what the company is doing is opening a direct negotiation front with customers to try to clear the liabilities even before the formal vote on the judicial recovery plan. The company sends messages via WhatsApp and, if the person signs the term, they accept the conditions irreversibly and waive the right to participate in the General Meeting of Judicial Recovery Creditors and any other action.
Assembly still without date
The Assembly does not have an exact date, but it should take place in the second half of this year, says Moretti. Until then, the process is in the credit review phase, in which the list of debtors is determined. “It is precisely this delay that the company relies on to offer the out-of-court settlement: it offers a quick way out for those who do not want to wait for the meeting and the long payment term that will come afterwards”, says Moretti.
For him, the new proposed extrajudicial agreement is a survival strategy for the company, since the number of people involved is so absurd that the Judiciary machine will take time to process all the data. Furthermore, by offering the agreement, the company reduces the number of critical voices in the Creditors’ Assembly. “As long as we do not have tools in the Judiciary that allow real-time data analysis to speed up these processes, the creditor will continue to be overcome by fatigue”, says Moretti.
Fight or not
According to him, the proposed plan is harsh on creditors. “Paying in semi-annual installments that start two years from now, with a 40% discount or linked to new expenses (cashback) is passing on all the business risk to the consumer”, he says. “If you are in no rush and want to fight for better conditions, the Assembly is the way to go, but be prepared to queue,” he says.
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Lawyer Gustavo Gomes, partner at Siqueira Castro Advogados and specialist in consumer relations, assesses that 123 Milhas took the initiative to try to anticipate the General Meeting of Creditors to better organize all outstanding debts. “These debts will not be paid in full and in the agreement there are very relevant, very sensitive discounts and payments in the medium and long term”, he says. For Gomes, consumers will end up suffering a financial loss as a result of the discount on the amount they invested in the past. “Our judicial recovery legislation ends up, in a way, often favoring the recovery of the company to the detriment of creditors and the consumer, in this case, is one of the most harmed”, he says.
Inevitable harm
The lawyer makes it clear that the creditor is under no obligation to accept the new agreement proposed by the company. “But, whether he accepts it or not, there shouldn’t be any major changes in what he will probably receive,” he says. He notes that the discount offered by the company is very large, over 70%. “In other words, one thing is certain: accepting the advance agreement or waiting for the judicial recovery plan to be approved, the consumer will certainly suffer a considerable financial loss in this 123 Milhas operation”, he concludes.
