By Brazil Stock Guide – Oncoclínicas do Brasil Serviços Médicos S.A. (ONCO3) said it has filed a court petition against Banco de Brasília (BRB) to safeguard its rights related to investment funds (FIPs) that hold shares in the company, following an inquiry from Brazil’s securities regulator, Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM).
In a filing to the market on Friday, the company said the action takes the form of a precautionary injunction, is proceeding under judicial seal, and has not yet been ruled upon. The clarification came after local newspaper Valor Econômico reported that Oncoclínicas had sued BRB to challenge the size of the bank’s equity stake in the company. Market sources cited by the newspaper estimated that BRB’s indirect holding may have exceeded 10% following the absorption of loan portfolios from Banco Master.
According to Oncoclínicas, however, the lawsuit does not seek to reassess BRB’s ownership position. Instead, it aims to obtain a preliminary court order preventing BRB from making changes to the management and governance of the FIPs, or from disposing of their units and underlying assets while the matter remains unresolved.
Roots in the Master collapse
The dispute traces back to the liquidation of Banco Master. On November 18, 2025, Oncoclínicas informed investors that its holdings in the bank’s certificates of deposit (CDBs) had been subject to early maturity following the Central Bank’s decision to place Master into extrajudicial liquidation. At the time, the company also said it would pursue all available measures to formalize and exercise a purchase option over FIP units that held Oncoclínicas shares.
Those funds had originally become shareholders in 2024, when Banco Master injected R$ 1 billion into Oncoclínicas through a capital increase, becoming a relevant investor in the oncology-focused healthcare network.
Transfer to BRB
On December 15, 2025, Oncoclínicas disclosed that it had been informed by the funds’ administrator that the FIP units had been transferred from Banco Master to BRB. The company said it had no knowledge of the terms under which the transfer occurred and had not received formal notification detailing the transaction.
Market reporting has since indicated that shares held by a Master-linked fund were pledged as collateral to BRB, effectively shifting influence over the funds without clear disclosure of governance conditions.
Why it matters
In structures involving FIPs, control over fund units — and over who appoints or replaces managers — can translate into indirect influence over voting rights and strategic decisions at the portfolio company level. For listed companies, that raises sensitive governance and disclosure questions, particularly when the ultimate economic exposure and decision-making authority are not fully transparent.
For Oncoclínicas, the legal move underscores an effort to ring-fence corporate governance amid the unresolved aftershocks of Banco Master’s collapse — and to prevent a public-sector lender from gaining leverage over fund structures that sit between the company and its shareholders.
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