Brazil’s Americanas requests financing of at least $197 million -filing

(Reuters) – Brazilian retailer Americanas SA has requested debtor-in-possession financing of at least 1 billion reais ($197.12 million) as part of its bankruptcy process, according to a securities filing Tuesday.

The financing aims to help the company maintain the “normal course of its business and reinforce its liquidity,” the firm said.

Americanas, backed by the billionaire trio that founded investment firm 3G Capital, entered bankruptcy protection this month after disclosing “inconsistencies” in its accounting, leading top investors such as BlackRock and Capital Group to scale back their positions in the firm.

It added it has been in talks with reference shareholders – Brazilian billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, the founders of 3G Capital – about the possibility of them subscribing up to the totality of the financing minimum amount.

($1 = 5.0731 reais)

(Reporting by Carolina Pulice and Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Stephen Coates)