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.

As Brazilian banks kick off their second-quarter reporting season this week, there are concerns that a hoped-for recovery after a couple of sluggish years will be marred by the possibility of losses related to the troubled industrial group of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Brazil's largest banks have grown rapidly over the past decade, as lending soared amid economic stability and rising employment and salaries. But profits have slid since 2011 as Brazil's economy has slowed sharply and is struggling to recover.

Brazilian power company Energisa SA on Thursday agreed to acquire control of Grupo Rede Energia SA, sealing a deal aimed at steering the former rival out of bankruptcy protection. Energisa has offered to pay creditors 1.95 billion reais ($862 million) and pump an additional 1.1 billion reais of fresh investments into the company, Reuters reported. Rede Energia has been struggling since energy regulator Aneel seized eight of its units last August in an effort to prevent it from halting electricity service in six states.

Creditors of Brazil's Grupo Rede Energia SA, a power distributor seeking to exit bankruptcy protection, approved on Friday a takeover plan by rival Energisa SA that would reduce losses on their investments in the company, Reuters reported. The plan, under which Energisa would take control of Rede and revamp it, must be submitted for final approval by the bankruptcy court, Thomas Felsberg, Rede's lawyer, said. Creditors voted on Energisa's bid and a bid by CPFL Energia SA and Equatorial Energia SA at an assembly.