Stock’s 88% Plunge Has Activist Attacking Brazil Bookstore Giant
- GWI questions management bonus, says company nears insolvency
- Saraiva calls for probe on possible stock manipulation
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More than a century after his grandfather founded the company, the 31-year-old heir to Brazil’s largest chain of bookstores is locked in a bitter fight with the company’s largest shareholder.
GWI Asset Management has accused Saraiva SA Livreiros Editores and Chief Executive Officer Jorge Saraiva Neto of bringing the bookseller to the brink of insolvency, doling out excessive compensation to executives and general incompetence that has resulted in losses in six of the past eight quarters. Not to be outdone, Saraiva accuses GWI of engaging in stock manipulation, says the asset manager’s CEO illegally broke into its offices, and is asking that the investor’s rights as a shareholder be revoked.