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%.
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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.
A Brazilian judge on Wednesday ruled that Imcopa, one of the country’s largest processors of non-genetically modified soybeans, will no longer be able to enforce early termination of a lease agreement related to two soy crushing plants, Reuters reported. Imcopa has been going through a bankruptcy reorganization since 2014 and wants to sell the plants to pay back creditors. Last week, Imcopa terminated a 10-year lease on the two plants with brewer Cervejaria Petropolis SA, prompting the beer maker to seek legal remedies.
Shares in Brazilian telecoms carrier Oi SA posted heavy losses on Tuesday, after media reports that its largest shareholder, GoldenTree Asset Management, is seeking to replace Oi’s Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles, Reuters reported. Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported earlier on Tuesday that GoldenTree, which holds a 14.5% stake in the company, sent a letter to the board saying Oi needs a CEO “that may execute the operational restructuring recently proposed,” the paper said, mentioning the letter was dated Aug. 16.