Joesley Batista, from holding company J&F, and Vincent Trius, former Chairman, resigned from the Board of Directors of Alpargatas, which has appointed José Vicente Marino as its new Chairman. The Company also announced it has cancelled its Board meeting planned in early June, during which the footwear manufacturing Group would put forward a proposal to migrate Alpargatas to Novo Mercado (‘New Market’), a listing segment created by Sao Paulo based stock exchange Bovespa.
J&F Investimentos SA, owner of meatpacking giant JBS, acquired a controlling stake in Alpargatas in November 2015 for a value of BRL2.67 billion (US$816 million). Alpargatas owns several footwear brands, including the celebrity famous Havaianas flip-flops, and represented American brand Timberland in Brazil until earlier this year.
In a statement published on May 23, Heitor Klein, Executive-President, Abicalçados (the Brazilian Shoe Manufacturing Association, outlined the impacts of Brazil’s national politics on the footwear sector. “In addition to the political crisis, which we hope will be resolved in a timely and fair manner, we have important and still uncertain economic impacts caused by the shocking plea bargain of one of the world’s largest meat processors”, said Klein.
In the meantime, Brazilian footwear manufacturers participating at upcoming trade fairs such as Francal, to be held July 2-5, 2017 in São Paulo, Brazil, raise questions as to how they should fix prices in dollars since their costs are calculated in Brazilian reals, and given the exchange rates are changing daily. “We expect the situation to be temporary and that the market will calm down as soon as the necessary explanations are given and the culprits condemned”, added Klein.
Sources: Epoca Negocios/Reuters
