Search American organic growth without discarding acquisitions

São Paulo-Lojas Americanas will follow focused on organic growth, as achieving the goal to open 800 new stores during the period from 2015 to 2019, but does not rule out possible mergers or acquisitions, said the Chief Financial Officer and investor relations officer of the company, Murilo Corrêa.
A possible acquisition or merger, he said, need to fit into the concept of value that the retail chain attaches to the organic expansion.
"If a future acquisition happen and makes perfect sense in terms of overlap and of value, without a doubt, we will assess, and who knows ...," said the Executive at a teleconference with analysts on the results for the fourth quarter released on Monday night.
Last year, Lojas Americanas, which has between the partners the billionaire private equity fund 3 g Capital, expressed interest in participating in the process of acquiring corporate slice on BR Distribuidora, Petrobras fuels unit, currently suspended.
There is also speculation in the market that the company would be one of the interested in Via retail, after the Pão de Açúcar group put up for sale your majority interest in Electronics retail chain last year.
The Company needs to accelerate the pace of opening new stores to achieve the goal of 800 units by the end of 2019, since in 2015 and 2016 92 and 93 stores were opened, respectively, which feeds some expectations related to acquisitions.
CORREA said he is very optimistic about the expansion plan and who hopes to accelerate the pace of opening stores in 2017, always respecting the requirement with the return of the units. "We do want to achieve this target (target) ... and we have every ability to make that happen."
On the eve, Lojas Americanas has announced the completion of the public offering of primary distribution of shares with restricted efforts, with resources, among other things, for expansion of the network of stores of the company.
In 2016, the Executive cited difficulty for the opening of more stores due to the postponement of investments of some entrepreneurs who are part of the process of expansion, due to the difficult economic environment in the country. He estimated that around 80 to 100 units are no longer open.
Margin + Here
Correa also said that the company''s gross margin in the fourth quarter was affected by the increased participation of the BlackFriday sales – which have a promotional feature – the total sales volume for the period, but that the trend is evolving to the shore in front of the company''s initiatives.
"Everything leads us to believe that evolution of the margin," said the Executive, who cited among the projects that support this evaluation the work of the company in the area of supply, own brands, apparel, big data, among others.
Also considered to be the promoter of financial products and services + Here as a vector in that direction. "There is a very large optimism regarding the ADA ... We launched a series of products and there are still many others to launch, "said Correa.
According to him, between these products, there is the "embryo of personal loan, which undoubtedly can bring profitability to the business".
In the current portfolio, a + Here offers products such as extended warranty insurance, insurance against theft or theft of mobile devices, gift vouchers and credit card Company, among others. In 2017, started the offer of tv installation service and helpdesk.