Usina Santa Terezinha ends judicial recovery process and presents investments

Founded in 1964, Usina Santa Terezinha, with units in the states of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, had one of the main chapters of its history written in the last week of March: the Court declared the company's judicial recovery process, which began in 2019. 

“Now, we are back in the same position as any similar company on the market and we continue to fulfill the obligations assumed and on the path to growth. Furthermore, we took the opportunity to announce the investments made during this period, which prove our overcoming and the strategic and assertive management of the crisis we are experiencing”, explains Sidney Samuel Meneguetti, legal director of Usina Santa Terezinha. 

In the last five years, the period of the judicial recovery process was one of restructuring and expansion of Usina Santa Terezinha: “We invested more than R$ 2 billion in sugarcane planting operations alone, we developed a foliar fertilizer for sugarcane, the USTFert, and we installed a sugarcane seedling biofactory (MPB's), which, today, produces more than 11 million seedlings per harvest. The Plant continues with the necessary investments to make operations even more efficient”, highlights Orlando Mansur Pereira, financial director of Usina Santa Terezinha. 

In 2023, the plant employed 8 direct employees and had gross revenue of R$3,4 billion, a result that should be repeated this year. The company still continues with investment plans in its operations, focusing on producing sugar, ethanol and electricity in a sustainable way from the processing of sugar cane. 

During the judicial recovery, the group structured the Transforma Project, which reorganized the management of the units into clusters, ensuring more synergy in activities. Now, the management transformation stage is in the execution phase and, therefore, the Performa Project is underway, which applies best practices to guarantee production efficiency. All these actions and the company's focus on fulfilling its obligations guaranteed the payment of more than R$300 million to creditors in December last year alone. 

Currently, Usina Santa Terezinha has units distributed throughout the states of Paraná, in the cities of Maringá, Paranacity, Terra Rica, Rondon, Cidade Gaúcha, São Tomé, Ivaté, Umuarama, Tapejara, Moreira Sales and Paranaguá, and Mato Grosso do Sul, in Eldorado.

Judicial Recovery Plan

Usina Santa Terezinha is the largest sugar-energy company in Paraná and one of the ten largest in Brazil. In 2019, the company filed for judicial recovery after a creditor did not agree to renegotiate the debt, resulting from consecutive sugarcane harvest failures, generated by climate crises. That year, the financial debt was around R$4,6 billion. 

“Overcoming this complex stage will be marked in the company’s history as a moment of transformation and resilience. We managed to deliver positive results, we advanced in the professionalization of business and the creation of new jobs. We believe that with the conclusion of the legal process, the possibility of resuming credit opens up, allowing the expansion of the company's business”, highlights Paulo Meneguetti, CEO of Usina Santa Terezinha.