Ambipar CEO Loses Part of Stake as Ex-CFO Disputes Allegations
(Bloomberg) -- Ambipar Participações e Empreendimentos SA continued its downward spiral as the waste management firm’s controlling shareholder lost part of his stake and a former top executive disputed in court that his actions are to blame for a debt crisis.
Leia em português
As investors grew concerned about Ambipar’s liquidity, Brazilian bank Bradesco SA, broker Genial Investimentos and Grupo Opportunity sold shares owned by Chief Executive Officer Tércio Borlenghi Jr. and held as collateral, according to a filing Friday.
The sales from Sept. 25 to Oct. 6 reduced Borlenghi’s stake to 68% from 73%, the company said, arguing that the transactions were in violation of a court protection order.
Borlenghi said he’ll fight in court to reverse the dilution. Bradesco declined to comment, and Genial didn’t respond. Opportunity said the sale of shares in the secondary market wasn’t tied to any debt execution and didn’t affect Ambipar’s cash position.
Ambipar, which does business in more than 40 countries, sought emergency protection from creditors via a Rio de Janeiro court last month, saying demands for payments could trigger cross-default clauses on its roughly 10 billion-real ($1.82 billion) debt pile. Ambipar is working to file for bankruptcy soon as next week, Bloomberg News reported early this week.
Its shares have plummeted more than 90% since late September. They rose as much as 54% Friday but gave back most of those gains by 2:21 p.m. in São Paulo.
Borlenghi said in the filing that the “irregular” sale of Ambipar shares in a short period of time resulted in an estimated loss of approximately 20 billion reais in market value.
Ambipar blames its crisis on an addendum signed with Deutsche Bank for a swaps agreement first established February. The addendum on the swaps contract, dated Aug. 18, states that Ambipar’s payments to the bank could also be done through credit instruments, including its bonds at face value. That allowed the company to get financing at much lower interest rates, according to the document, which says the derivatives deal was approved by Ambipar’s chief financial officer, CEO and treasurer.
The company’s former CFO, João Arruda, has begun presenting his side of the story, arguing in court that the addendum signed with Deutsche Bank was a shrewd financial management move.
He also said the company’s credit risk deterioration was caused by a series of actions taken by the CEO, according to a document filed with a Rio de Janeiro court.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
