Brazil

A reorganization plan to help oil rig supplier Sete Brasil Participações SA remain in business should be ready by the end of June, after shareholders and creditors agreed to extend financing as credit dried up, the president of Brazil's state development bank BNDES said on Thursday. Last week, commercial banks signed a memorandum of understanding to avert demanding repayment of as much as 11 billion reais ($3.7 billion) in loans to Sete Brasil that matured this month, extending them for a further 90 days.

Police arrested the treasurer of Brazil's ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday, bringing the country's largest corruption scandal a step closer to President Dilma Rousseff's government, The Sydney Morning Herald reported. Joao Vaccari Neto was arrested in connection with a probe into money laundering and illegal donations to the party, public prosecutor Carlos Lima said. Mr Neto is the latest the latest prominent Brazilian caught up in a multibillion-dollar probe.

Creditors of Brazil's OGX Petroleo e Gas, the bankrupt oil company created by tycoon Eike Batista, agreed not to execute payments or guarantees stipulated in a debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing secured in 2014 by the company, Reuters reported. In a filing published on Friday, the company said creditors agreed to convert DIP financing into common shares of OGX as stipulated in the financial agreement. Creditors would refrain from any new judicial demands or ask for early repayment, the filing said.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Brazilian tax authorities solicited bribes from major companies in exchange for reducing their liabilities in corporate tax disputes, officials say, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Tuesday, the Finance Ministry said the alleged scheme wasn’t systematic but rather, involved “isolated acts” carried out by a small group of government tax officials. When prosecutors announced the investigation on March 26 they said that losses to the nation’s treasury totaled $6.1 billion over 15 years.

Schahin Petroleo & Gas SA, a rig and platform supplier to Brazil’s state-run producer, is seeking a credit line to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, said two people familiar with the matter. Bonds tumbled, Bloomberg News reported. Schahin, which supplies Petroleo Brasileiro SA with offshore drilling rigs and production platforms, is temporarily halting operations at five of the units it has leased to Petrobras, it said in an e-mailed statement.

A Brazilian state court accepted a bankruptcy protection request filed by engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS for nine of its units, in the largest corporate failure yet related to the snowballing Petróleo Brasileiro SA corruption scandal. The decision on Thursday by Judge Daniel Carnio Costa at São Paulo State's 1st District of Judicial Recoveries allows Grupo OAS to begin steps to renegotiate about 8 billion reais ($2.5 billion) in debt, according to a statement. OAS has 60 days to present a debt restructuring proposal to all creditors.

Brazilian engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS requested court protection from creditors for nine of its units on Tuesday as it grapples with the fallout from a scandal at state-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA, a major customer, Reuters reported. The filing comes after Grupo OAS struggled for months with the effects of a corruption investigation at Petrobras, as the state oil company is known, which undercut the builder's access to financing and contract payments. An economic downturn, government austerity and a slumping currency have also taken a toll on the company in recent months.

President Dilma Rousseff's government denied on Wednesday that it is looking to strike a "grand bargain" with Brazilian construction and engineering firms implicated in the kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. With Brazil facing recession, the government is keen to limit economic fallout by reaching leniency deals with some of the 24 companies under investigation that have halted projects and laid off workers after Petrobras stopped paying them.

The deficit-ridden pension fund for Brazilian postal workers is being investigated for alleged reckless management after several years of money-losing bets ranging from investments in Lehman Brothers bonds to Argentine debt, two people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported.

A Brazilian judge has accepted charges filed by state prosecutors against 11 companies accused of forming a cartel to raise prices on the construction and upkeep of subway and train systems in the state of Sao Paulo, The Wall Street Journal reported. A press officer of the prosecutor’s office said Saturday that Judge Marcos Pimentel Tamassia accepted the charges that involve contracts signed between 2000 and 2007. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to comment the case.