Brazil had 6,341 companies in court-supervised debt restructuring in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 66% over three years, according to a survey by RGF, a consultancy specialized in corporate restructuring, cited in an analysis published by BBC News Brasil and republished by G1 on Thursday (27). So far this year, the list of large companies that have filed for judicial or extrajudicial recovery, the Brazilian equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, already includes Habib's, Casas Bahia, Marabraz, Braskem, Raízen, Oncoclínicas, the Toki Group (Tok&Stok and Mobly), the CVLB Group (Casa & Vídeo and Le Biscuit) and the St. Marché supermarket chain. Retail accounts for 21% of the cases, the largest sectoral share, followed by manufacturing (19.6%) and agribusiness (17.5%), according to RGF.
In judicial recovery, all of a company's debts (labor, tax, supplier and bank claims) are renegotiated under court supervision, the path retailer Americanas has followed since 2023. In extrajudicial recovery, the company negotiates with a group of creditors and later has the deal ratified by the courts. Both mechanisms exist to avoid outright bankruptcy, the outcome a court decreed for telecom carrier Oi last Tuesday (25) after years of failed restructuring attempts.
High interest rates and defaults squeeze both ends of the chain
Experts interviewed by BBC News Brasil point to three combined factors behind the wave. The first is the cost of money: the benchmark Selic rate stands at 14% per year, which inflates corporate liabilities and shrinks the supply of consumer credit. The second is management error, including broad cuts to middle-management positions over the past decade that concentrated decisions in few hands. The third is a shift in the labor market, with companies struggling to retain and train staff. Retail suffers the most because it depends on credit at both ends of the chain: to pay the suppliers who stock the shelves and to finance the customer who buys in installments.
"On one side, there are factors external to the company, such as the difficulty of accessing capital, banks increasingly restricting financing and working-capital lines, and leverage that rose sharply after the pandemic, when the Selic went from 2% to 15%", said Fabian Salum, a tenured professor and competitive-strategy researcher at Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC).
Salum also cites household indebtedness, with 39% of the population in default, according to data presented in the report. "The retreat in consumption means companies miss their targets. With that, they cut investment, including staff training", said the professor, who sits on the boards of medium and large companies. In his assessment, the cause of the phenomenon "has a hybrid composition and seems far from over".
Government denies widespread crisis
The issue has gained political weight ahead of the October elections, with opponents of President Lula using the queue of recovery filings to criticize his economic management. Finance Minister Dario Durigan acknowledged in a Globonews interview on the 21st that retail is squeezed by high interest rates, but denied a generalized crisis. "There is a series of data points in the Brazilian economy that show strength in several sectors", he said, attributing the crisis reading to the electoral period.
The most recent case shows how the pressure reaches the cash register. Casas Bahia filed for judicial recovery last week and, according to Folha de S.Paulo, told São Paulo's 2nd Bankruptcy and Judicial Recovery Court that Banco do Brasil debited R$ 422 million from its accounts after honoring guarantees called by suppliers Apple and Mapfre Seguros. The bank denied any debit in a court filing and accused the retailer of bad-faith litigation. Casas Bahia's recovery request has not yet been accepted by the court.
For suppliers, the wave means called guarantees, longer payment terms and tougher criteria for selling on credit. For consumers, the effect shows up in more expensive and shorter installment plans, in a country where four in ten adults already have a negative credit record. If the list of recovery filings keeps growing, as the experts consulted by the report predict, the squeeze tends to move down the chain: less credit for producers, less time to pay for buyers.