Brazil

Brazilian state bank Caixa Economica Federal has filed a legal motion requesting the liquidation of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA, according to court documents seen by Reuters, in what could be a dramatic end to the graft-plagued company, Reuters reported. Caixa also demanded that creditors appoint new management at the conglomerate and its subsidiaries if the judge does not order the company’s liquidation. The move by Caixa adds pressure on Odebrecht to restructure its debts in one of Latin America’s largest-ever bankruptcy cases.

Oi SA’s top executives have a message for investors and analysts pushing the company to sell more assets or take on more debt: Back off. The Brazilian phone company -- now in the final stages of a $19 billion debt restructuring -- has various options to raise capital but won’t make any decisions under pressure, Chief Operational Officer Rodrigo Abreu and Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles said in an interview, Bloomberg News reported.

Brazilian state-run development bank BNDES is facing losses of up to 14.6 billion reais ($3.5 billion) from loans made to conglomerate Odebrecht SA, which has been in bankruptcy protection since June, the bank said on Monday, Reuters reported. Of this total, 3.7 billion reais is related to federal government losses on export financing credits, and 8.7 billion reais is loans to companies under the Odebrecht Group umbrella, the BNDES said in a statement on its website.

President Jair Bolsonaro ’s administration is opening up one of the world’s most closed big economies, slashing import tariffs on more than 2,300 products and exposing local industries long accustomed to protectionism to the challenges of free trade, The Wall Street Journal reported. With little fanfare, the conservative government has since taking office in January eased the entry of ultrasonic scalpels, cancer drugs, heavy machinery and more, in some cases with tariffs reduced to zero from as much as 20%.

The board of Brazilian phone carrier Oi, currently under bankruptcy protection, has named Rodrigo Abreu as its new Chief Operating Officer, the company said in a securities filing on Friday, Reuters reported. Abreu was previously a member of Oi’s board, where he headed a committee that was advising the company’s senior management on the recovery plan. Oi said that Abreu, as COO, will oversee key areas for the company such as engineering, systems and operational performance.

Brazilian telecommunications firm Oi SA is in talks with Spain’s Telefonica SA and Italy’s Telecom Italia SpA to sell its mobile network to avoid insolvency, five people with knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. Oi has been struggling to turn around its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in June 2016 to restructure approximately 65 billion reais of debt.

Brazilian sugar and ethanol maker Grupo Moreno, which operates three plants in the heart of Brazil’s sugarcane belt, has filed for bankruptcy protection, the law firm advising the company told Reuters on Thursday. The move underscores problems caused by poor margins in the sugar business in recent years and a depressed domestic ethanol market between 2011 and 2015, when the Brazilian government kept gasoline prices artificially low to fight inflation, turning ethanol margins negative, Reuters reported.

Odebrecht’s construction unit OEC has signed an agreement with bondholders to restructure its debt at a 55% discount, cutting it from $3.2 billion to $1.4 billion, the conglomerate said in a statement on Friday. The bonds, which matured and were unpaid earlier this year, will have new 4-1/2-year maturities, Reuters reported. The agreement concludes the out-of-court restructuring of Odebrecht’s construction unit. Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico first reported on the signing of the agreement.

Latin American airline Avianca will look to increase the number of passengers it can fit into a plane without enlarging its fleet as part of its efforts to overcome ongoing financial problems, its chief executive said on Thursday, Reuters reported. A video was released on social media this week showing president of the board Roberto Kriete telling employees that the airline was “broke.” The airline said the video was obtained illegally and denied that it was in a bankruptcy or insolvency process.

Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA, which has been in bankruptcy protection since June, has proposed to creditors a swap of their debt for instruments similar to equity, according to a statement issued on Monday, Reuters reported. The instruments would give creditors the rights to receive proceeds of the asset sales and future profits of the companies controlled by the conglomerate. The plan, which the statement said Odebrecht filed with the court late on Monday, has no explicit discount on the 51 billion reais ($12.4 billion) debt that is being restructured.