The Hopi Hari amusement park has ended its receivership after nine years. Judge Fábio Marcelo Holanda, of the Vinhedo District (SP), where the park is based, decreed the end of the process in September, with favorable statements from the judicial administrator and the Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Paulo.
The decision mentions that the obligations due between 2022 and 2024 have been fulfilled regularly, with the presentation of monthly reports, payments to creditors and the maintenance of tax regularity.
The award was made despite outstanding questions related to the correction rates for payments to creditors. According to the document, the receivership law allows closure even when there are still pending disputes or credit qualifications.
Contacted for comment on the outcome of the process, Hopi Hari only responded to the publication of this text.
The park filed a request for judicial relief in August 2016, after seeing its financial situation deteriorate and being accused of delay in the payment of salaries, 13th and health insurance.
In 2021, the group signed a $500 million deal to restructure, expand and develop the theme park. The contract covered obligations to creditors and provided for the planning of new attractions and real estate projects on the park land, in Vinhedo (SP).
The same year, a report from Leaf showed that Beto Carrero World and Playcenter parks came together to present a proposal to purchase Hopi Hari. The offer was contested and was unsuccessful.
In 2022, the judicial recovery plan was approved in a meeting attended by BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), SLW, Prevhab and Mirai, which together held around 90% of the debt.
The plan included the commitment of the main shareholder, the private equity fund Brooklyn Investimentos — which owns 74% of the park — to invest 150 million reais between 2022 and 2026 in the expansion and modernization of the project.
The park was opened in 1999, with the participation of GP Investimentos and the pension funds Funcef, Petros, Sistel and Previ. In the 2010s, Hopi Hari was the most visited park in the country, with almost 2 million visitors per year, ahead of its competitors Beto Carrero, in Santa Catarina, and Playcenter, in São Paulo.
Experts consulted by Leaf They say that the end of the receivership followed the conventional procedure. “The criteria for verifying whether the company complies with what was required during the control period — and also after it — come from the approved and approved legal recovery plan itself,” explains Daniel Vilas Boas, partner of VLF Advogado.
According to him, professionals are appointed to supervise the company and check whether it is actually following the plan. “If everything is in order, the judge makes the final decision.”
According to lawyer Lígia Martins Cherubini Gonçalves, of Henneberg Ferreira Marques Advogados, the decision restores autonomy to the company. “After this stage, legal relations return to the normal regime: what has been paid is extinguished and any obligations continue to be fulfilled according to the conditions established in the plan. This is proof that the company operates in a healthy and transparent manner,” he affirms.
According to her, the park will also once again have the freedom to contract new credits and negotiate deadlines without depending on judicial authorizations.
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