O GPA aumentou a margem no tri; agora faltam as vendas e a geração de caixa

Grupo Pão de Açúcar (GPA) reported a mixed second-quarter result on August 4: adjusted EBITDA grew 7.3% to R$450 million, beating the Bloomberg consensus estimate of R$434 million, while net revenue fell 9.6% to R$4.23 billion, per Brazil Journal.

On the margin side, the EBITDA margin expanded 1.7 percentage points to 10.6%, and gross margin reached 30.5%, up 3.1 points year-over-year — the second straight quarter of improvement. The company cut expenses and captured R$244 million in efficiency gains in the first half, equivalent to 59% of its full-year target of R$415 million. Those gains came from 3,000 layoffs over the past year, centralizing purchasing, renegotiating contracts, and overhauling a logistics structure that still reflected the scale of the old Extra hypermarket chain.

Cash generation, however, remains a problem. GPA ended the quarter with free cash flow of negative R$112 million, and net debt rose approximately R$290 million during the period. The primary pressure was working capital: suppliers, wary of the company's ongoing out-of-court restructuring (recuperação extrajudicial), shortened payment terms from 56 days a year ago to 44 days in Q2, causing the supplier balance to fall R$396 million in the quarter. The deconsolidation of Stix — the loyalty company sold to RD Saúde — also created an impact of roughly R$185 million across cash and working capital, Brazil Journal reports.

The revenue decline was partly intentional: GPA shut down Aliados, its sales channel for small retailers, and reduced its exposure to third-party e-commerce platforms, both of which carried thin margins. But the restructuring also hurt the top line directly — some suppliers cut back deliveries, pushing out-of-stock rates 2.3 percentage points above the prior-year level in May. By July that gap had narrowed to 1.4 points. CEO Alexandre Santoro told Brazil Journal that same-store sales returned to growth in June, aided by the World Cup, and that preliminary data show growth in July as well. He did not provide a timeline for consistent same-store sales growth, saying, "We want to grow with the right value proposition for the consumer and for the bottom line."

As of June 30, GPA carried an effective net debt of R$3.65 billion and leverage of 3.9x. The company also disclosed a pro-forma figure — net debt of R$1.2 billion and leverage of 1.3x — that simulates the full effect of the restructuring plan and the use of R$298 million from the sale of its stake in financial services firm FIC to pay down debt. CFO Pedro Albuquerque said that pro-forma figure will only become effective after judicial ratification of the restructuring plan, expected by end of September; a change in the presiding judge has delayed the process.

Looking ahead, Albuquerque said GPA expects month-by-month and quarter-by-quarter improvement in the second half, with "much stronger" cash generation in 2027. Capex was cut 55% in the first half to R$162 million; the company plans to spend R$300–350 million for the full year and has no plans for meaningful store expansion over the next two years, according to Santoro. The focus instead is on improving existing stores, regionalizing product assortments, and reducing what management described as an oversized technology infrastructure.