Capital increases have regained traction as one of the main solutions for indebted companies amid an increasingly expensive and selective credit market.

Year-to-date, the volume of shares issued by listed companies totals R$ 7.5 billion, in operations that largely focus on reducing leverage and strengthening capital structure.

The largest contributions came from Azul , which carried out a follow-on offering of almost R$ 5 billion as part of its restructuring, including the conversion of debt into shares, and from Hypera Pharma, which raised R$ 1.5 billion in a private offering restricted to the company's shareholders.

The volume of primary emissions this year is already 85% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2025, and has the potential to more than double in the short term, considering only open operations.

The operation with the greatest potential is the issuance of R$ 536 million to R$ 8.8 billion in BRB shares, which seeks to restructure its capital after significant losses with Banco Master .

Another relevant offering on the radar involves the Simpar group, which is structuring capital increases to reduce its debt and that of its subsidiaries.

The holding company — whose net debt is approximately three times its EBITDA — could raise up to R$2 billion, while its subsidiaries Vamos and Movida are seeking up to R$600 million and R$750 million, respectively. This week, Movida reported that it has already reached the minimum amount of R$500 million with its shareholders, making the offering viable.

Vitru Educação is also taking steps to raise capital without resorting to more debt. On Wednesday, April 8th, the owner of the Uniasselvi and Unicesumar colleges filed a public offering of shares with the potential to raise up to R$ 300 million, with part of the proceeds earmarked for paying down liabilities.

The list of companies that have already turned to the stock market this year to try to reduce their debt also includes Grupo Mateus, Pague Menos , Gafisa, Infracommerce , and Paranapanema. Aegea, a publicly traded company but not listed on the stock exchange, raised R$ 1.2 billion from its main shareholders to try to balance its debt.

“Generally speaking, these operations appear in companies that are under more pressure. If the company were doing well, it wouldn't need to raise capital, unless there was a great investment opportunity,” says Ricardo Simon, co-founder of the asset management firm Eclipseon.

According to Simon, the worsening inflation expectations linked to the effects of the wars in the Middle East may have aggravated this scenario. "There was an expectation of a greater drop in long-term interest rates, but it doesn't seem that will materialize, at least in the short term. So, these companies with higher leverage levels may end up having more difficulties."

In the Focus Bulletin, expectations for the Selic rate at the end of this year rose from 12.13% to 12.5% in the last four weeks, while projections for the IPCA (inflation index) rose from 3.91% to 4.36%. The biggest effect, however, has been on fixed income, directly affecting the source of funds for publicly traded companies.

More restricted credit

With higher inflation and interest rate expectations, the benchmark for infrastructure funds closed March with a negative performance of 1.74%, while spreads rose 34 basis points.

According to analysts at ABC bank , the scenario is similar to that faced by the industry in October of last year, when negative results dried up the volume of funding.

In March of this year, infrastructure funds had net inflows of R$ 4.1 billion, according to a survey by ABC bank.

"What is still unknown is the level of redemptions, given that the industry works with terms of D+30 or more. After the poor performance in October, redemptions reached R$ 1 billion per day, but only in December, 45 days later," says the ABC report.

In private credit funds, net inflows fell from R$23.2 billion in January and R$8.4 billion in February to R$600 million in March. With less new money in credit funds and the risk of outflows, a decrease in the volume of debt issuances is expected.

In a survey conducted by ABC with credit managers, only 16% said that the volume of the primary market is expected to increase, while 50% anticipate a drop in activity in the next three months. Pessimism also extends to the behavior of spreads, with 75% of managers expecting a worsening of prices, compared to 24% six months ago.

“The credit market has worsened. I wouldn’t say the tap is completely turned off, but it’s dripping. Obviously, this scenario makes things immensely difficult. Everyone was expecting the start of a major monetary easing cycle,” says Daniel Utsch, manager at Nero Capital.

The capital increase, says the manager, is always a positive signal for the creditor, given that the reference shareholders are putting new money into the company. He emphasizes, however, that these operations involve the dilution of minority shareholders if they do not participate in the offering.

"It's a strategic decision by the controlling shareholder, based on what they're seeing from the creditors. In the end, it's a dispute between controlling shareholders and creditors to determine where the resources will come from to maintain the companies' operations," says the manager.

With less new money available to finance the debt of companies that are already highly leveraged, another option has been judicial or extrajudicial reorganization, as Raízen and GPA did last month .

“In the case of Raízen , for example, it is clear that creditors would prefer a large capital increase from Cosan and Shell, rather than institutional repression.”

Utsch expects that most of the major restructurings at the stock exchange are already underway, without the need for large capital increases in the short term or bankruptcy filings. "If there are many more, then it's a very bad scenario."

One of the cases that is still open is that of Oncoclínicas . In November, the company carried out a capital increase of R$ 1.4 billion , converting part of its debt, but it continues to seek a solution with its creditors, as it is on the verge of reaching the maximum leverage limit stipulated in the debt contracts, which would allow it to accelerate its maturity.

The company, which is in the midst of negotiations to sell its operations to Porto , stated that it is considering taking legal action to protect itself against creditors.