Havaianas brand sold for $1.1bn amid corruption scandal
The owners of Havaianas, a well-known brand of flip-flops, have sold the company for R3.5 billion ($1.1 billion).
Havaianas flip-flops are manufactured by Alpargatas, which also owns fashion brand Osklen and has an exclusive licence for the Mizuno sportswear brand in Brazil and some other Latin American countries.
Scandal-hit J&F Investimentos sold its 54.2% share in Alpargatas to three Brazilian banking groups—Investimentos Itaú, Brasil Warrant Administração de Bens e Empresas, and Cambuhy Investimentos.
J&F was fined more than $3 billion in May after brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista confessed to paying bribes to almost 1,900 politicians, according to the Financial Times. They have since resigned from the company.
Itaú released a statement on the agreement on Wednesday, July 12, explaining that the acquirers “are confident that Alpargatas, with the collaboration of its employees and executives, will continue its growth trajectory and will be able to identify new opportunities that maximise the value creation for stakeholders”.
Currently, Alpargatas has more than 700 stores worldwide, most of which are Havaianas, in addition to 150,000 sales location in Brazil and 10,000 abroad.
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