Coruripe raised 1.5 billion reais from the sale of court-ordered payment claims, giving one of Brazil’s largest sugar-and-ethanol producers room to reduce debt and free up collateral as the sector faces weaker margins.
The company will use the proceeds to repay a syndicated financing arranged about 18 months ago to redeem bonds issued abroad, according to a monthly financial report released Thursday. The deal had made monetization of the claims a trigger for early repayment.
The syndicated debt originally totaled $300 million, equivalent to 1.8 billion reais at the time, split between reais and dollars. Coruripe said the outstanding amount is now about 1.3 billion reais, with Rabobank and Itaú BBA holding a significant portion of the debt. The two banks structured the transaction along with XP Investimentos.
The loan also included 604 million reais in agribusiness receivables certificates, or CRAs. Coruripe will redeem the securities early, paying 540 million reais to creditors. Ecoagro, the securitization company responsible for the CRA, has told investors payment will be made next Monday
The cash injection eases pressure on a capital structure that has long been watched by the market. Last month, the Alagoas-based company told investors it expected leverage to rise to 2.4 times net debt to Ebitda by the end of the 2026/27 crop year, from 2.2 times currently.
The timing is critical. Sugar remains in a down cycle that still appears far from turning, while ethanol prices are also under pressure from oversupply.
Repaying the syndicated loan gives Coruripe more flexibility for refinancing and releases land owned by the Wanderley family that had been pledged as collateral.
The sale also helps validate the value of judicial assets carried on Coruripe’s balance sheet. A person familiar with the deal said the company still holds another court claim that could be monetized in the future.
Coruripe has more than 4 billion reais in annual revenue and ranks among Brazil’s 10 largest sugar-and-ethanol groups. Its four mills crushed almost 16 million tons of sugarcane in the last crop year.
The story was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence
