Brazil

Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said it rejected a petition by Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Oi SA, to stop Aurelius Capital Management inking a debt restructuring accord with the struggling Brazilian telecoms company, Reuters reported. The regulator said in a statement on Tuesday, however, that it would open an administrative inquiry to examine claims levied by Societe Mondiale, an investment vehicle of distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, regarding Aurelius’ holdings in the nation’s telecoms sector.

Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA affiliated with Brazilian investor Nelson Tanure, filed a complaint with the nation’s telecoms regulator on Friday seeking to limit the actions of a key bondholder, Reuters reported. In the complaint, seen by Reuters, Societe Mondiale asks the competition unit of telecoms regulator Anatel to prohibit the company from signing any contract or engaging in negotiations that “may give legal substance to a deal implying transfer of control to any fund” related to Aurelius Capital Management LP.

A Brazilian bankruptcy judge overseeing Oi SA’s in-court debt restructuring has put newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles in charge of negotiating with creditors, the telecom operator said in a filing. The decision, disclosed late on Wednesday night, gives Teles powers to draft a debt restructuring plan and present it to the judge without board approval, a move that severely weakens the power of influential shareholder Nelson Tanure, Reuters reported. Preferred shares of Oi were down 1.3 percent at 3.88 reais ($1.19) in early trading.

The chief executive of Oi SA has resigned, its largest shareholder said on Friday, as the Brazilian telecommunications firm enters a crucial phase in Latin America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for Portugal’s Pharol SGPS SA, which owns about 27.5 percent of Oi’s voting shares and is part of a controlling shareholder bloc, said it had been informed of Marco Schroeder’s resignation. The move reflects deepening fissures between Oi’s management and board, run by shareholders aligned with distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure.

A Brazilian judge has decided to uphold bankruptcy protection for Seara Industria & Comércio de Produtos Agropecuários Ltda, a soy and corn trader whose largest creditor is U.S. agriculture cooperative CHS Inc, Seara said on Thursday, Reuters reported. In July, an appeals judge had granted a motion to halt the case while forensic accountants investigated creditors’ allegations that the company had falsified financial statements.

The board of Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA is trying to assemble a coalition dependent on public sector creditors to pass its restructuring plan in the face of serious opposition from private bondholders, three sources with knowledge of the board’s strategy told Reuters.

Debt-laden Brazilian telecoms provider Oi SA could benefit from a third-party capital injection, but the company should focus on talks between creditors and shareholders before engaging new strategic investors, its chief executive said. In a Monday interview regarding third-quarter results, CEO Marco Schroeder said he thought it was “extremely important” that a long-delayed creditors meeting be held on Dec. 7 even if creditors and shareholders had not reached an agreement, Reuters reported.

The law firm representing a bondholder group in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA has asked a court to nullify decisions made by the company’s board, according to a copy of the motion seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The motion by law firms including Pinheiro Neto Advogados, which represents the so-called Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders, asked the court in Rio de Janeiro to suspend appointments the board made on Friday of two members of Oi’s management, Reuters report.

The head of Brazil’s telecommunications watchdog, Anatel, demanded on Monday that debt-laden carrier Oi SA submit its latest restructuring proposal to the regulator before officially filing it with a bankruptcy court, Reuters reported. Anatel head Juarez Quadros told reporters in Brasilia that the regulator, an Oi creditor due to billions of dollars in unpaid regulatory fines, would wait for the country’s solicitor-general to give an opinion on the company’s proposal before deciding whether or not to vote for it.

The board of Brazil´s Oi SA has approved a change to the restructuring proposal of the debt-laden telecom provider to be submitted to creditors on Monday, the company said in a securities filing. Terms of the proposed changes will be filed by the company with the court in Rio de Janeiro that oversees Latin America´s largest-ever bankruptcy proceeding, which aims to restructure 65 billion reais in debt, Reuters reported.