Brazil

Brazil’s real weakened after inflation surprisingly accelerated and as Goldman Sachs said the currency is poised to drop another 11 percent this year while the government struggles to contain consumer-price increases and shore up its budget, Bloomberg News reported.

Brazil’s real weakened after inflation surprisingly accelerated and as Goldman Sachs said the currency is poised to drop another 11 percent this year while the government struggles to contain consumer-price increases and shore up its budget, Bloomberg News reported.

Sete Brasil Participações SA plans to file for bankruptcy protection if state-controlled oil producer Petróleo Brasileiro SA, the rig builder's sole client, fails to present a final lease contract proposal in a week's time, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday, Reuters reported. Both Sete Brasil and Petrobras declined to comment.

Creditors of Brazilian engineering group Schahin, which was snared in the country's biggest-ever corruption investigation, may reject a recovery plan in a vote at a Wednesday assembly, according to newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo. Estado reported, without saying how it obtained the information, that banks holding Schahin's debt found the plan to be unrealistic and ongoing negotiations to be unproductive. A Schahin representative had no immediate comment on the report.

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff called on Congress to approve a new tax on financial transactions and other potentially unpopular bills to balance the nation’s finances and reverse a deep recession, The Wall Street Journal reported. Ms. Rousseff, who is being targeted for impeachment by the lower house, addressed the congress in the legislative year’s opening ceremony for the first time since 2011, a sign of the high stakes for her administration. “Growth requires fiscal stability,” she said at the opening ceremony.

Brookfield Asset Management Inc has withdrawn an offer to buy the 24.4 percent stake in infrastructure company Invepar held by Brazil's Grupo OAS SA because Brookfield would not have full management control of the company, two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said on Monday, Reuters reported. Brookfield failed to reach an agreement with OAS's partners in Invepar, pension funds Previ, Petros and Funcef, over management control of the firm, said the sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A Brazilian bankruptcy court upheld a restructuring plan for embattled engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS, paving the way for a slew of asset sales aimed at helping pay over 8 billion reais ($2 billion) in liabilities. In a Thursday statement, the São Paulo-based group said that bankruptcy judge Daniel Carnio Costa gave his approval to the plan, which had previously been voted by an assembly of creditors in December. Under the plan, creditors will take an 80 percent loss on their debt and accept repayment for as many as 25 years.

Debt restructuring firms are poised to pull in record amounts of business in Brazil this year as the country's worst recession in decades and a corruption probe that has cast a shadow over dozens of companies leads to a surge in defaults, Reuters reported in an insight. While a slump in prices is squeezing commodities producers - from sugar mills to oil producers and miners - the "Operation Car Wash" investigation into political kickbacks at state oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA is also hitting many of its suppliers.

Brazil's Mines and Energy Ministry said on Friday it held talks this month with various investors in the transmission line and wind sectors to feel out potential interest in taking over local projects abandoned by Spain's financially distressed Abengoa SA, Reuters reported. The ministry told Reuters it had met with executives from local and international energy firms including Spain's Cymimasa and Elecnor, China State Grid and Brazil's Engevix and Alupar. It also met with wind investors from Italy's Enel Green Power and local firm Casa dos Ventos.

Power companies with wind-generation capacity could take over transmission line projects in Brazil operated by Abengoa SA after the Spanish construction group's insolvency filing halted work on the systems, Reuters reported. Candidates include groups like Renova Energia SA and CPFL Renovaveis SA that would lose revenue if the transmission lines go unfinished or remain inactive, three specialists with knowledge of the discussions said on Monday. Any proposal to take over Abengoa's rights would require approval from Brazil's electrical power regulator Aneel.