The cost of the 12 billion reais loan granted to Correios, linked to the restructuring plan of the public company, will reach around 115% of the CDI (Interbank Deposit Certificate), according to three people familiar with the matter interviewed by Leaf.
The rate was below the ceiling set by the National Treasury for granting sovereign guarantees. This means that the Union will honor payments in the event of default, making the risk of loss virtually zero for financial institutions.
The CDI rate of 115% equates to interest of just over 17% per year. The maximum cost scale approved for the operation by the Treasury, at 120% of the CDI, was approximately 18% per year. The first loan proposal, which was rejected, was for 136% of the CDI, or around 20% per year.
According to one of the interlocutors, the resources are expected to be released by next Thursday (18), but this still depends on bureaucratic procedures. The transfer will be complete and immediate, without division into tranches.
The entry of money into the public company’s cash register is crucial to guarantee the timely payment of the 13th salary of employees, which must be paid before the 20th. As the date falls on a Saturday, the transfer must be made before Friday (19th).
The proposal was presented by a group of five banks, two of which are controlled by the federal government. Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Bradesco, Itaú and Santander will participate in the operation. The last three recently entered the negotiations, while Caixa returned to participate in the conversations after the Civil House entered the circuit for the institution to join the banking union.
The cost of the operation includes a fee of 2% of the value (equivalent to 240 million reais), charged by financial institutions to cover the costs of structuring the operation.
The loan will have a total duration of 15 years, the first three years being accompanied by a grace period, that is to say that it is only after this period that the Post Office will begin to pay the installments.
In the distribution between financial institutions, Banco do Brasil, Caixa and Bradesco will each lend R$3 billion, while Itaú and Santander, R$1.5 billion each. When contacted, BB and Caixa declined to comment and the others did not respond.
The next step consists of transmitting information on the operation to the National Treasury, which must validate the conditions and grant the guarantee.
The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in turn, will also have to adopt a normative act to increase the loan subscription limit by the public sector, currently set by the CMN (National Monetary Council).
The CMN is a collegial body formed by ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance), Simone Tebet (Planning) and the president of the Central Bank, Gabriel Galípolo. Regular council meetings are held at the end of each month, but there is the possibility of an extraordinary vote on urgent matters, which must take place in this case.
For 2026, the CMN authorized R$21 billion in loans to states and municipalities, already practically exhausted, in addition to R$4 billion for operations involving the works of the Angra 3 plant and an additional R$2.4 billion for Union agencies and entities, which would be insufficient for the operation of Correios.
At the same time, the public company evaluates whether it will have to resubmit the loan to the board of directors and the board of directors. The board of directors had already approved an operation on less favorable conditions, with a cost close to 136% of the CDI, according to the proposal presented by Banco do Brasil, BTG Pactual, Citibank, ABC Brasil and Safra.
It is possible that the approval previously given by the board of directors could also be taken into account in the case of a lower cost transaction, but the subject is currently being analyzed to guarantee the legal certainty of the contract. If there is a need to re-approve, this will be done after Treasury approval.
According to those interlocutors, the parties are still discussing certain clauses of the contract, such as the existence or not of restrictive conditions (known as covenants) linked to the restructuring plan. Some of them may provide, for example, for an early expiry of maturities or the activation of the sovereign guarantee in the event of frustrated results. These points are not yet closed.
Initially, Correios’ request was for a credit of 20 billion reais, an amount deemed necessary to finance the company’s restructuring plan in 2025 and 2026. The measures include the settlement of debts with suppliers and banks, a new PDV (voluntary dismissal program) to lay off 15,000 employees in 2026 and 2027 and the reformulation of positions and salaries and the health plan of the company, among other initiatives.
The company’s management has already admitted the possibility of splitting the loan, if this proves necessary to reduce operating costs. On the other hand, implementing this path means that Correios may need new credits or funding from the Treasury in 2026, an election year.
The first proposal, presented by Banco do Brasil, Citibank, BTG Pactual, ABC Brasil and Safra, fully reached the value of 20 billion reais, but the Treasury stopped the procurement and refused to grant the sovereign guarantee because it considered the interest rate (136% of the CDI) too high.
During the new negotiations, BTG Pactual, Citibank, ABC Brasil and Safra left the banking consortium. Some of them did not agree to reduce the interest rate, according to their interlocutors. There are also those who left the negotiating table due to the delay in carrying out the operation, which ended up making it more difficult to mobilize the resources necessary to grant the credit.
When contacted, ABC Brasil and Citibank declined to comment. The others did not respond.
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