Via, formerly Via Varejo, is a Brazilian retail company founded in 2010 through the merger of retail companies

Casas Bahia Casas Bahia ( English: Bahia Houses) is a Brazilian retail chain specializing in furniture and home appliances. Currently, it is one of the largest retail chain in Brazil, the other being Magazine Luiza and Americanas. It was founded in 1952 ...

, owned by the Klein family, and Ponto, owned by

Grupo Pão de Açúcar Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição, doing business as GPA (formerly as Grupo Pão de Açúcar), is the biggest Brazilian company engaged in business retailing of food, general merchandise, electronic goods, home appliances and other products f ...

. Since June 2019, the Klein family own a controlling stake in Via Varejo.Bautzer, Tatiana & Mandl, Carolina (14 June 2019)
"Control of Brazil retailer Via Varejo shifts to Klein family from GPA"
''Reuters''. Retrieved 25 June 2019.

History

In December 2009, Grupo Pão de Açúcar purchased Casas Bahia and transferred its retail units to Globex Utilidades SA, Ponto Frio's parent company which was purchased by the group in June earlier that year. The company operates retail online through its subsidiary Nova Pontocom, an

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managem ...

company that was born in 2010 by the merger of the online operations of Casas Bahia, Ponto Frio, and

Extra Extra or Xtra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * ''Extra'' (newspaper), a Brazilian newspaper * ''Extra!'', an American me ...

, a hypermarket chain owned by Grupo Pão de Açúcar. Nova Pontocom holds 18% of the market share in Brazilian online retail. In early 2012, Globex Utilidades officially changed its corporate name to Via Varejo. In May 2013, it was announced that the Klein family is planning to sell as much as R$ 2 billion (16%) worth of their stake in the company through an

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

. 53.7 million common shares of the family's stake began trading on December 16, 2013. Via Varejo raised R$ 2.845 billion through a

public offering A public offering is the offering of securities of a company or a similar corporation to the public. Generally, the securities are to be listed on a stock exchange. In most jurisdictions, a public offering requires the issuing company to publish a ...

of shares. Three quarters of the amount raised went to the Klein family, while the rest went to GPA. Ownership of the company has changed to GPA with 43.3%, the Klein family with 27.3%, and minority shareholders with 29.3%."Corporate Governance"
''Via Varejo''. Retrieved 16 August 2016. In October 2013, it was announced that Via Varejo will acquire the remaining 75% stake of Móveis Bartira, an exclusive provider of furniture for Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio, founded by Samuel Klein in 1962. In June 2014, Cnova Brazil, a global e-commerce company with a total gross merchandise volume of $4.9 billion, was created through a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

between

Casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

, GPA, Via Varejo and Exito. Cnova Brazil will be directly owned 46.5% by Casino (including its subsidiary Exito) and 53.5% indirectly by GPA, Via Varejo and certain founding shareholders of Nova Pontocom. In June 2019, it was announced that the Klein family became the largest shareholder of Via Varejo with a 27% stake, after GPA sold its entire stake.

Operations

Via Varejo holds a 21.9% stake in Cnova Brazil, which owns and operates the following online stores: Extra.com.br, Casasbahia.com.br, Pontofrio.com. As of July 2020, the company has 1073 stores in Brazil, distributed under the brands Casas Bahia with 857 stores and Ponto Frio with 216 stores. The state with the largest number of Casas Bahia and Ponto Frio stores is

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, with 358 and 59 stores respectively."Our Stores"
''Via Varejo''. Retrieved 27 July 2020.

References

External links

''Via Varejo - official website (English)''''Via Varejo on Bloomberg''''Via Varejo on Reuters''
{{Ibovespa companies Retail companies of Brazil Retail companies established in 2010 Companies based in São Paulo (state) Department stores of Brazil Companies listed on B3 (stock exchange) Brazilian brands GPA (company)