Havaianas flip-flop brand sold for £850m as scandal-hit owners sell stake

Disgraced billionaire brothers at centre of Brazil corruption scandal offload 86% stake in footwear maker to pay £2.5bn fine.

Brazilian flip-flop brand Havaianas is being sold for nearly £850m as its billionaire owners flog the family silver to pay a £2.5bn fine relating to a corruption scandal that is threatening to topple the country’s president.

The owner J&F, part of the business empire of Brazil’s disgraced Batista family, said it had sold an 86% stake in the sandal maker for R3.5bn (£844m) to a consortium of wealthy investors.

The Batistas were fined R$10.3bn (£2.5bn) in May after brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista confessed to bribing almost 1,900 politicians to obtain cheap government loans for their businesses. The scandal has reached the top of Brazilian politics with President Michel Temer among those accused of corruption.

Made by the São Paulo-based Alpargatas, Havaianas turned what had previously been overlooked as functional footwear into a fashion phenomenon with Gywneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston among the celebrity fans.