Brazil

Bermuda's Supreme Court ruled for the liquidation of Brazilian private-equity firm Laep Investments Ltd, in response to a reuqest by an investment fund, according to a securities filing on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Laep, which is based in Bermuda but mostly operated from its offices in São Paulo, has been under strain in recent years after some of its main investments - including milk producer LBR Lácteos do Brasil SA and high-end luxury retailer Daslú - failed to produce the expected returns.

Investors holding about $300 million of shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA's debt signed an agreement to protect their rights in case the company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista is unable make bond payments, the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Thursday, Reuters reported. The accord was signed by seven large investment funds with about $200 million in OSX bonds and other investors holding about $100 million, Estado said, without naming a source. OSX has $500 million in international bonds outstanding, the paper said. OSX declined to comment.

Brazilian entrepreneur Eike Batista’s OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA is asking a group of investors for at least $250 million in fresh capital in an effort to avert bankruptcy, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg reported. The capital injection for OGX would be part of a restructuring in which Batista will ask bondholders to convert $3.6 billion of debt into OGX stock, diluting Batista in the company, said the people, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista will ask creditors of his debt-strapped oil company OGX to become shareholders and inject new cash, in a last ditch attempt to avoid seeking bankruptcy protection, Folha de S.Paulo newspaper said on Thursday. The plan will be presented to bondholders of OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações SA next Tuesday in New York, Folha said, citing five people involved in the negotiations. However, an OGX spokeswoman told Reuters it was not true that the company had scheduled a meeting with bondholders for next week.

Robert Shiller, who predicted the collapse of the U.S. housing market, is warning that a bubble is emerging in Brazil at a time when a sluggish economy and persistent inflation are eroding investor confidence, Bloomberg reported. Since January 2008, home prices in Sao Paulo have soared 181 percent and jumped 225 percent in Rio de Janeiro, according to the FIPE Zap index. That’s as much as twice the increase in rent prices, signaling that the housing market has become overheated, according to Shiller, a Yale University professor who helped create the S&P/Case-Shiller Index of U.S.

Companies in Brazil, struggling with weak economic growth, rising borrowing costs and a currency slump, are likely to boost demand for advice on debt restructuring as early as next year, a partner at investment banking firm Virtus BR Partners said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The newfound caution of private-sector lenders could make it harder for some companies to refinance existing loans or make new ones, said Eleazar de Carvalho, a senior partner at Virtus. He did not signal out specific sectors, but said refinancing talks between banks and borrowers are starting.

The flagship oil company controlled by Brazilian businessman Eike Batista plans to present a proposal to restructure its debts in two weeks' time, in which bonds would be swapped for shares and the firm would try to raise fresh capital, according to a person familiar with the transaction, The Wall Street Journal reported. The fortunes of OGX Petróleo e Gás Participações SA, the linchpin in Mr. Batista's sprawling industrial empire, collapsed after its only operating oil field failed to live up to expectations when it began production in mid-2012.

Brazilian airlines are seeking government aid to help curb losses stemming from a weakening currency, in the first sign that the rapid sell-off of emerging market assets is beginning to hurt the country’s corporate sector, the Financial Times reported. The plea was swiftly followed by further declines in the real, which closed at R$2.4543 against the US dollar, the lowest level since December 2008, after US Federal Reserve minutes showed officials in support of slowing its monthly asset purchases later this year.

Brazil has called for the IMF-backed rescue programmes for Greece and other southern eurozone countries to be reviewed to make them more economically sustainable. The call from finance minister Guido Mantega came as he sought to explain Brazil’s stance on Greece’s rescue programme after its IMF representative, Paulo Nogueira Batista, abstained from a vote to approve the latest tranche of help for Athens.

Brazil’s representative to the International Monetary Fund’s executive board abstained from approving the fund’s new €1.8bn contribution to Greece this week and issued a stinging criticism, arguing that Athens might be unable to repay its rescue loans, the Financial Times reported.