Eike Batista’s OSX Brasil SA has filed a new request for bankruptcy protection in a Brazilian court, it said in a filing Sunday, Bloomberg News reported. The shipbuilding company, which previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013, has more than 7.9 billion reais ($1.6 billion) in debt, according to the filing. Brazilian banks Caixa Economica Federal and Banco Santander Brasil SA are among its creditors, the filing said. A new judicial recovery process is necessary “in order to prevent irreversible damage” to the company, it said in the filing.

The former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas SA was mostly invisible to the public. He avoided press interviews, was distant from investors and analysts — and very few public photos of him even exist, Bloomberg News reported. Now, Miguel Gutierrez is infamous. In the year since a 25 billion reais ($5 billion) accounting fraud scandal erupted at his former company and tarnished the reputation of its billionaire shareholders, the Rio de Janeiro native has relocated to Spain while Brazilian investigators continue their probe.

Brazil should end 2024 with a primary deficit of 55.3 billion reais ($11.2 billion), the federal audit court (TCU) said, in the latest sign of skepticism that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government can meet its pledge to eliminate the fiscal deficit, Reuters reported. After Lula upped spending on social measures in his first full year in office, the market is worried his administration won't meet its fiscal goals. Despite falling interest rates, long-term future interest rates remain high, underlining market discomfort with the government's fiscal situation.

Bonds of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA slumped further into distressed territory as investors question whether the Brazilian airline will be able to strike a deal with creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar notes maturing in 2026 were down nearly 11 cents on the dollar to around 24 cents on Tuesday, according to Trace data, pushing the yield to 88%. It was the biggest decline in the US junk bond market Tuesday. The rout comes after local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Sunday the company is mulling filing for chapter 11 within a month.

Brazil's government submitted a bill to Congress on Wednesday that would modernize bankruptcy regulations, aiming to speed up proceedings by giving creditors more control over the process, Reuters reported. According to finance ministry official Marcos Pinto, Brazil's current regulations date to the 1980s, and the average bankruptcy process in the country lasts more than 11 years. With the changes, the government expects to cut that length in half while increasing recovery levels and reducing the cost of credit, Pinto added in a press release.

The parent company of Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and Colombia’s Avianca is meeting creditors to kickstart negotiations in a bid to fix its balance sheet, Bloomberg News reported. Abra Group Ltd will host talks with representatives of its $1.5 billion bondholders in New York on Wednesday, the first step toward striking a comprehensive restructuring deal for the troubled low-cost airline group. Abra’s bondholders are working with financial adviser Houlihan Lokey Inc. and law firm Dechert LLP, while Abra hired Rothschild & Co., they said.

Brazil’s development bank is considering granting loans to the country’s airlines as part of a government plan aimed at alleviating financial pressures at Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Azul SA and other carriers that have caused sharp increases in fares, Bloomberg News reported. BNDES, as the bank is known, is looking for options to help the airlines come up with sufficient collateral, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

Brazil posted a wider-than-expected current account deficit in November but the figure as a proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) continued to decrease, data from the central bank showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The current account deficit in Latin America's largest economy totaled $1.6 billion in November. Economists polled by Reuters expected a $400 million deficit. Brazil's $6.7 billion trade surplus in the month, larger than the $4.7 billion one reported a year ago, was not enough to offset an increase in the factor payment and service deficits, the central bank said.

Creditors of distressed Brazilian retailer Americanas SA approved a restructuring plan to overhaul 50 billion reais ($10.3 billion) of debt in a key step to applying a recovery plan nearly a year after its sudden implosion due to a multi-year fraud, Bloomberg News reported. With more than 97% of banks, bondholders and suppliers represented at the virtual meeting, the creditors gave the company the green light to proceed with the plan that envisions a capital injection of 24 billion reais in 2024 and recovery rates close to 30%.

Economic activity in Brazil performed worse than expected in October, central bank data showed on Wednesday, corroborating broad readings of economic cooling, Reuters reported. The IBC-Br index, a key predictor of gross domestic product (GDP), fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.06% from September. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the IBC-Br was up 1.54% over October 2022 and grew by 2.19% in the 12 months. Latin America's largest economy has previously prospered this year on the strength of its agribusiness and extractive industries.