Authorities in Brazil are investigating senior employees at Connecticut-based trading house Freepoint Commodities for their alleged role in a bribery scheme involving state-run oil company Petrobras, Reuters has learned. Federal police here suspect Freepoint, through an intermediary, routed bribes to Petrobras employees for a roughly seven-year period ending in 2018. Reuters pieced together the purported kickback operation from three people close to the investigation, and hundreds of pages of previously unreported court documents filed by Brazilian investigators.
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Brazilian airline Azul SA has approached Chile’s bankrupt LATAM Airlines Group with the aim of buying its Brazilian operation, Reuters reported. Azul’s shares rose more than 9% in Sao Paulo on the news, while LATAM’s shares in Santiago, where the airline is listed, were down 20%. LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago and, while it has secured new liquidity in that process, it has yet to present a formal restructuring plan.
Covid-19 bankrupts a travel-industry power player. Investors dump its securities. But wait: vaccines roll out, economies reopen, and that once-doomed firm looks pretty attractive to traders once again. The tale of Latam Airlines Group SA’s Chapter 11 case is looking eerily similar to that of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. in some respects, Bloomberg News reported. Both went bankrupt as the virus raged. Both were in decent financial shape before the pandemic ground travel to a halt.
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As LATAM Airlines Group reshuffles its operations and cleans up its financial situation as a part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the group’s branches continue their streamlining and cost-cutting measures. The latest agreement — and one of the most relevant with respect to labour relations so far — was announced this week at LATAM Brasil. In an internal announcement, the company announced it would be outsourcing its ground agent jobs at almost all Brazilian airports.
Brazilian bus company Itapemirim is launching a new airline in June, betting it can dodge the financial ruin that has grounded many rival carriers even though the land transport company just spent five years reorganizing under bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. The carrier expects to have a fleet of 50 Airbus A320 planes by next year, all painted in Itapemirim’s signature bright yellow color, trying to beat the odds that have led 11 airlines to fail in Brazil so far this century.
A Minas Gerais state court has declared bankruptcy for MMX Sudeste Mineração, a subsidiary of MMX, which in turn is still pending its own bankruptcy protection, MMX said this week, SteelOrbis.com reported. MMX is an iron ore producer which depends on its subsidiary, MMX Sudeste Mineração, to carry own its bankruptcy protection plan. MMX said it wasn’t officially notified of the court decision, adding that it will strategically review its options.
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London's Court of Appeal will hear a request to revive a 5 billion pound ($6.95 billion) lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining group BHP (BHPB.L), (BHP.AX) over a 2015 dam failure in Brazil, a court order showed, Reuters reported. Judge Nicholas Underhill has agreed to an oral hearing that could help to overturn a previous Court of Appeal decision which denied a 200,000-strong Brazilian claimant group permission to appeal against a judgment to strike out the landmark case.
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Banco Bradesco's loan defaults are under control despite the Brazilian lender's decision to set aside an extra 1 billion reais ($185.31 million) in the first quarter to blunt the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Chief Executive Octavio de Lazari said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The CEO told analysts the bank is likely to end 2021 with between 15-16 billion reais in loan-loss provisions, roughly the mid-point of the annual outlook it unveiled in February.
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Brazilian iron ore miner Samarco Mineração SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection Monday, after initiating similar proceedings in Brazil earlier this month amid mounting creditor litigation, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Samarco needed to seek protection under chapter 15 of the U.S. bankruptcy code, as well as Brazilian insolvency laws, after bondholders and bank lenders filed lawsuits in both countries to freeze and start the process of seizing the company’s assets, according to a sworn declaration by Chief Financial Officer Cristina Morgan Cavalcanti.
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Samarco Mineracao SA, a joint venture between Brazilian miner Vale SA and BHP Group Ltd, has filed for bankruptcy protection to prevent creditors’ claims from affecting its operations, Vale said in a Friday securities filing, Reuters reported. The collapse of a dam at the Samarco mine complex in 2015 killed 19 people and severely polluted the Doce River with mining waste, one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters. The facility, which resumed production in December, is the focus of significant litigation from bondholders holding nearly $5 billion in debt.
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