By Brazil Stock Guide – Ambipar (AMBP3) said on Friday (Dec. 19) that its board of directors approved the terms and conditions of the group’s Judicial Reorganization Plan and authorized the filing of the proposal with the courts. The plan, already submitted to Rio de Janeiro’s 3rd Corporate Court, covers Ambipar and its affiliates, including Environmental ESG Participações, and sets out a broad redesign of the company’s financial, corporate and contractual structure.
In a material fact filing, the company said the plan was structured to overcome its current financial stress while preserving business continuity, maintaining the regular provision of environmental services and safeguarding jobs. The proposal may still be amended ahead of the general creditors’ meeting, depending on negotiations with affected stakeholders.
The plan is built on an explicit diagnosis: Ambipar’s crisis is described as financial — not operational. According to management and the economic-financial reports attached to the filing, the imbalance stemmed primarily from offshore debt structuring and foreign-exchange derivative transactions, rather than from market share losses, demand erosion or execution failures.
According to the plan, the two international bond issuances — $750 million in 2024, maturing in 2031, and $493 million in 2025, maturing in 2033 — and the associated FX hedge structure resulted from decisions taken during the tenure of former CFO João Arruda. As credit conditions deteriorated, those structures began to trigger margin calls and exposed the group to the risk of more than R$10 billion in accelerated maturities through cross-default clauses. That risk led to emergency measures ahead of the judicial filing, including a roughly R$60 million cash injection linked to swap operations and the early settlement of about $120 million in financial obligations, putting additional pressure on liquidity.
The reorganization plan sets differentiated treatment by creditor class. Labor claims follow statutory priority rules, while financial creditors, unsecured lenders, suppliers and strategic creditors are subject to combinations of maturity extensions, grace periods, nominal discounts, debt novation and revised payment schedules. The proposal also introduces the concept of a “collaborating creditor,” potentially eligible for more favorable terms, and allows for debt-to-equity conversion, reducing financial leverage.
On the corporate front, the plan authorizes a broad reorganization, including mergers, spin-offs, incorporations, the winding down of subsidiaries and the sale of non-core assets and equity stakes. The stated goal is to simplify the group’s structure, concentrate resources on core operations and generate additional liquidity over the course of the restructuring.
Despite the financial strain, Ambipar highlights the preservation of its operating scale. The group maintains activities in more than 40 countries, with recurring contracts across waste management, environmental emergency response and industrial services, serving a diversified industrial client base. Of the companies under common control, 74 entities were included in the judicial reorganization perimeter, while others were kept outside the process, underscoring the selective nature of the restructuring.
The economic-financial reports attached to the plan conclude that, once the capital structure is reset, the group is financially viable. Projections indicate that, after removing the pressure from accelerated maturities and margin calls, Ambipar should return to positive operating cash flow, sufficient to sustain operations, preserve jobs and meet restructured obligations over time.
For investors and creditors, the central message of the filing is that the judicial reorganization is designed as a financial normalization tool, not a rescue of a structurally unviable business. The outcome will now depend on creditor support and disciplined execution — but, according to the plan’s own figures and assumptions, the company’s operating base remains intact.
Read more: The Man Who Triggered a Financial Earthquake
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