(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Brazil is negotiating a Union-backed R$20 billion ($3.77 billion) rescue loan for Correios, the state postal operator.

The plan, expected in two tranches of R$10 billion ($1.89 billion) across 2025–2026, is meant to buy time for a reset: paying overdue suppliers, funding a voluntary severance program, and upgrading operations so the company can stop bleeding cash.

The numbers explain the urgency. Correios posted consecutive losses-R$767 million ($145 million) in 2022, R$596 million ($112 million) in 2023, and R$2.59 billion ($0.49 billion) in 2024-before a deeper slide this year.

The company lost R$4.37 billion ($0.83 billion) in the first half of 2025, including R$2.64 billion ($0.50 billion) in the second quarter alone.

Suppliers have taken payment disputes to court, and a new chief executive, Emmanoel Schmidt Rondon, arrived in late September with a mandate to steady the ship.



The story behind the story is structural. E-commerce boomed, but the most profitable urban routes have been captured by private couriers and platform-linked logistics networks.
Correios Faces Tough Balancing Act as Brasília Weighs Lifeline Loan
At the same time, new rules on low-value imports-the“taxa das blusinhas”-curbed a stream of small cross-border parcels that once fattened volumes. Correios still carries a universal-service obligation to reach every municipality, including remote and loss-making areas.

Its legal monopoly covers letters, not parcels, so the company competes where the money is while serving everywhere else-a difficult balance even in good times.

The proposed loan would come with conditions: cost cuts, governance fixes, and productivity gains. In plain terms, Brasília is paying for time. What happens next affects more than a balance sheet.

Because the federal government would guarantee the debt, taxpayers absorb the risk if turnaround targets are missed. For consumers and small sellers-especially outside major cities-Correios remains the most affordable nationwide option.

What to watch: Whether service quality stabilizes and whether promised savings from staff reductions and technology upgrades materialize remain key questions.

Policymakers must also decide how to fund universal service-through direct subsidy, a levy on competitors, narrower obligations, deeper restructuring, or some mix of all four. The next two years will tell if this lifeline leads to recovery or a bigger, costlier debate.

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