Brazil’s largest private lender, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, may pursue loans with a higher risk of defaults in the near future as a way to accelerate loan-book growth, Chief Executive Candido Bracher said on Tuesday. Bracher told analysts on a conference call that a proposal to increase loan-risk appetite will be submitted to the bank’s board, without specifying when it could be implemented. Itaú’s move toward riskier loans would address the concerns of some analysts, who believe that remaining too cautious has hindered lending, Reuters reported.
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An arbitration chamber run by Brazil’s Sao Paulo Stock Exchange has temporarily suspended a capital hike planned by Oi SA in order to adjudicate a dispute between the major telecommunications company and a shareholder, Reuters reported. In a statement on Monday, Oi shareholder Pharol SGPS SA said it had been given until Nov. 5 to present additional arguments to the body regarding the legality of the planned capital raise.
A Portuguese court approved on Friday a debt restructuring plan that was passed by creditors in major Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA, marking a step forward in the company’s tortured bankruptcy recovery process, Reuters reported. With the court’s approval, seen by Reuters, bankruptcy courts in all relevant jurisdictions - Brazil, the United States, the Netherlands, and now Portugal - have signed off on the recovery plan, which was approved by creditors in December.
Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao SA bondholders are growing more pessimistic about the outlook for the construction conglomerate at the center of Brazil’s epic graft scandal, Bloomberg News reported. The firm’s $1.4 billion of dollar-denominated bonds due in 2025 and 2042 have each lost more than 10 cents over the past month, leaving them at a five-month low near 25 cents on the dollar. Investors are growing concerned the builder is running out of money to pay them back amid a dearth of new projects and a swiftly deteriorating cash supply.
Embraer SA will have the right to block ten crucial matters in the commercial-aircraft joint venture it’s forming with Boeing Co, according to a Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies, Bloomberg News reported. The document was made available via the website of the Sao Jose dos Campos Metalworkers Union on Sept. 21 after the Labor Prosecutor’s Office requested a copy of the MoU under judicial confidentiality and made it public…Embraer’s American Depositary Receipts reversed earlier gains after the MoU was reported and were trading down 0.3 percent to $19.72 at 2:08 p.m.
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A Rio de Janeiro appeals court has determined that billions of dollars in fines owed to regulators by Brazil’s Oi SA will be included in the company’s bankruptcy recovery package, a ruling showed on Wednesday. Oi, Brazil’s largest fixed line telecom company, entered bankruptcy in 2016, and in late 2017 creditors approved a plan to convert billions of dollars of debt into fresh equity, Reuters reported.
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Brazil's state-run oil giant Petróleo Brasileiro SA aims to raise output as much as 10 percent to around 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2019 and cut net debt by $10 billion (7.62 billion pounds), Chief Financial Officer Rafael Grisolia told Reuters. The world's most indebted oil company is on course to reduce debt to $69 billion by the end of this year despite falling short of its $21 billion asset sales target, Grisolia told Reuters in an interview in New York late Friday.
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Brazil’s Natura Cosmeticos SA recently approached Avon Products Inc. about a takeover, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies aren’t in serious talks and Avon, which has received other expressions of interest, is focused on turning itself around and reviving its shares, one of the people said. Following years of decline in its once-formidable direct-sales business, Avon had a market value as of Monday’s close of just $900 million, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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Brazilian infrastructure operator Invepar should focus on refinancing its substantial debt load instead of pursuing an immediate sale, the chief executive of pension fund Previ, one of Invepar’s key investors, said on Monday. Speaking on the sidelines of a pension fund event in Florianopolis, Previ’s José Mauricio Coelho said Invepar may issue new debt or extend maturities on its current debt, instead of looking for an investor to take control of the company and inject cash, Reuters reported. Invepar has lost 1.2 billion reais ($291 million) over the last two years.
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Turkey’s market mayhem came as no surprise to many emerging-market veterans. What investors may be underestimating, though, is the contagion risk for Brazil, according to Carmen Reinhart, the Cuban-born economist whose warning in May of perils to come proved prescient, Bloomberg News reported. "Do I think Turkey will turn into a major contagion episode? I think a key answer is what happens in Brazil," the Harvard professor said in an interview, citing high liquidity, political uncertainty and a debt-to-GDP ratio not seen in two centuries.
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