Law 13,818, approved on April 24, 2019, changes the wording of articles 289 and 294 of Law 6,404/1976.

Article 289 now determines that the publication of the company’s mandatory information will be made in a well-known newspaper of the area where the company’s headquarters is located. The information may be published in a summary form and must also be available in the internet page of the such newspaper, which must have digital certification of authenticity by an accredited certifier authority under the Brazilian Infrastructure Public Key (ICP-Brazil).

Regarding the publication of financial statements, the summary form must contain, at least, in comparison with the data from the previous fiscal year, information on the results of each group and on the classification of accounts or records, as well as extracts of relevant information of the explanatory notes and of the opinion of the independent auditor and audit committee, if any. Therefore, the companies will not be obliged to publish information in the Official Gazette anymore. This amendment shall take effect on January 1, 2022.

Article 294 now determines that closed corporations with less than 20 shareholders, or with a net equity of less than BRL10 million, will be entitled to the simplified regime of publicity of corporate acts. Such limit used to be BRL 1 million, and this amendment is already in effect.

The corporate team of Souto Correa is available to clarify any doubts and to provide any support regarding these matters.