Brazilian food processor BRF SA posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss on Thursday as trade embargoes, a drop in sales volumes and higher feed prices weighed on management’s efforts to turn the company around, Reuters reported. In its second quarter after a corporate restructuring following a string of bad financial and operating results, BRF said it lost 812 million reais ($218 million). That was almost double the average loss of 443 million reais forecast by analysts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

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Brazilian companies are again looking to raise capital by selling shares or refinancing debt as the pre-election uncertainty that put such dealmaking into a deep freeze gives way to optimism after the selection of market-friendly candidate Jair Bolsonaro as president, five people familiar with the matter told Reuters. One of the sources, who asked for anonymity to disclose details of private negotiations, said that up to 10 companies are in talks with investment bankers to sell shares and five other companies are planning bond transactions by January, Reuters reported.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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