In a new round of negotiations, Curios received a second loan offer this week, but the terms were too similar to the first offer, much to the dismay of the state-owned company’s leadership, O GLOBO found.
According to interviewers familiar with the matter, BTG Pactual, Citibank, ABC Brasil and Banco do Brasil once again expressed interest in continuing the process, as in the first round, but at a cost very similar to the previous offer.
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In the proposal, Curios said they want to raise up to R$20 billion, at a maximum rate of 120% of CDI. Given the response, the company is still trying to negotiate with the banks, but is already in contact with the Ministry of Communications and the National Treasury, which should analyze the possibility of the union approving the loan.
The banks did not comment on the matter when contacted. “More information may be officially published after it is evaluated and issued by the relevant supervisory authorities,” Kurios said.
Once he took over Correios, at the end of September, President Emmanuel Rondon announced that the company was looking for a R$20 billion loan to give the state-owned company a boost in the short term. Resources are necessary to rebalance cash flow, pay off outstanding debt to resume normal operations and put the company’s restructuring plan into effect. Therefore, the loss is expected to be reversed in 2026.
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However, in the first round of talks, the interest rate charged by the four banks was deemed too high for a process that would have to be approved by the national treasury – meaning that if the company did not pay, the union would bear the cost. The risks for financial institutions, in practice, are zero.
The rate offered reached 136% of the interest rate on loans, entailing a cost of about R$3 billion per year in interest alone, according to an interlocutor involved in the negotiations. The Treasury Guarantee Committee sets the maximum acceptable cost for an operation to be eligible for a union guarantee, which is currently 120% of CDI.
This ratio is not a restriction in itself, but is a practice used by the Agency to avoid abuses in credit operations with state-owned enterprises and subnational entities. Loans provided to countries under the financial recovery system, for example, do not adhere to this limit, because they are naturally more risky.
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However, in the case of Curios, the idea was to follow this standard. Therefore, the state-owned company opened a new round of negotiations to try to raise at least R$10 billion and expanded the list of banks consulted.
On Friday, Correios released a balance sheet showing a loss of R$6 billion through the third quarter of this year. In the same period in 2024, the cumulative result was negative at R$2.1 billion.
According to an internal statement, in the third quarter, the company witnessed a further decrease in revenues and an increase in operating expenses, in addition to an increase in demand for managing legal and labor obligations.
Balance sheet data shows that there was a loss of R$1,690 billion in the third quarter, compared to a negative result of R$785.5 billion in the same period last year.
The company notes in the document that the Postal Service faces a deficit resulting from a gradual decline in sales revenues and increasing expenses – driven by cumulative inflation, salary adjustments, legal obligations, higher input costs and pressures from national operations.
The state-owned company recognizes that in the competitive sector, private operators have “evolved with dynamic business models, offering flexible service hours and turning fixed costs into variables through outsourced deliveries.” In this context, management is managing the restructuring plan.
Until June, the company recorded an accumulated loss of R$4.3 billion in the first half of 2025. In the second quarter alone, between April and June, the negative result reached R$2.6 billion, almost five times the R$553.1 million recorded in the same period of the previous year. Monthly cash flow is negative at around R$750 million.
As GLOBO showed, internal estimates point to a negative outcome of R$10 billion this year and R$23 billion in 2026, if there is no progress on the company’s restructuring plan. .
In the document released on Friday, Curios confirmed that, starting next year, he intends to introduce structural measures aimed at increasing revenues and reducing expenses. “Among them: Reducing expenses; Reorganizing units with low efficiency; Modernizing structures and systems; Automating logistics; Strengthening compliance with legal responsibilities; Reducing the Saúde postal deficit. This phase focuses on restoring efficiency and reducing waste,” the company states.