Brazil

A court in Brazil's São Paulo state seized on Friday 8.9 percent of the shares that construction group OAS SA has in infrastructure company Investimentos e Participações em Infraestrutura SA, alleging that the debt-ridden group is in imminent risk of insolvency. Judge Roberto Corcioli Filho of the state of São Paulo Justice Court told Reuters that he ordered the seizure at the behest of Pentágono SA DTVM, which as a trustee represents the interests of holders of 160 million reais ($60 million) in OAS local debt notes.

Brazil's Petrobras has admitted it is so far unable to calculate how much money was stolen from the company in a vast corruption scandal that has shaken confidence in the world’s second-largest emerging market, the Financial Times reported. After two months of delays, the state-controlled oil producer finally published its unaudited financial statements for the third quarter of 2014 at just after 4am on Wednesday in Brazil to avoid breaking some of its debt covenants.

Latin America is turning into the world leader in corporate-bond defaults, Bloomberg News reported. Four companies in the region have skipped dollar-denominated debt payments this month, more than any other area and almost half the total in all of 2014. In a sign bond investors are increasingly concerned about Latin American companies’ ability to repay debt, borrowers led by Mexico’s oil-rig operators have pushed the amount of the region’s bonds trading at distressed prices to $58 billion, about a third of all emerging-market debt trading at such levels.

Brazil will next month increase taxes on fuel and loans to individuals and adjust other duties to help plug the government’s yawning budget deficit, the Financial Times reported. New finance minister Joaquim Levy announced the measures on the eve of a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, during which he will seek to convince investors that Latin America’s biggest economy is setting its finances back on track. “The increase in revenue due to the above measures is expected to be R$20.63bn in 2015,” the finance ministry said in a statement.

OAS SA, the Brazilian builder that skipped bond payments this month as it tries to restructure debt, is seeking a 2 billion-real ($760 million) loan that would be repaid with proceeds from asset sales, three people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported. The loan would be backed by OAS’s stake in Invepar, an airport and toll-road operator, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Other assets might also be pledged as collateral. The Sao Paulo-based company, which has a stake of 24.4 percent in Invepar, said Jan.

Brazil’s Planning and Budget Ministry ordered the federal government to cut some spending until the country’s congress approves a budget law for 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported. The measure, which is more restrictive than existing rules, is another sign new Finance Minister Joaquim Levy and his economic team, which includes Planning and Budget Minister Nelson Barbosa, are serious about getting public finances in order, economists said. The order, announced Thursday, will save 1.9 billion reais ($708 million) a month, according to Brazil’s Planning and Budget Ministry.

President Dilma Rousseff said she will tighten Brazil’s budget, increase investment and productivity in an effort to restart economic growth, while minimizing “sacrifices” by the population, Bloomberg News reported. “We will prove that economic adjustments are possible without revoking acquired rights or betraying our social obligations,” Rousseff said Thursday during the swearing-in ceremony for her second term.

There are not many executives who have asked their boss three times whether they should be fired and survived. Maria das Graças Foster, chief executive of Petrobras, Brazil’s crisis-stricken state-owned oil company, says she’s one, the Financial Times reported. She has offered her resignation to Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s president, on multiple occasions in recent weeks but her close friend of more than a decade has stuck by her — so far.

Creditors approved Brazilian shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA's revamped plan to emerge from bankruptcy late on Wednesday, giving a boost to efforts by controlling shareholder Eike Batista to keep the company afloat while refinancing over $2.6 billion in debt, Reuters reported. OSX's own bankruptcy protection plan, as well as those from subsidiaries OSX Construção Naval SA and OSX Serviços Operacionais Ltda, were approved by an assembly of creditors in Rio de Janeiro, according to a securities filing. OSX had introduced a revamped plan a month ago.

Eneva SA, the ailing Brazilian producer controlled by Germany's E.ON SE, filed late on Tuesday for credit protection in a Rio de Janeiro court after failing to refinance part of its 2.33 billion reais ($900 million) in outstanding debt, Reuters reported. In a statement, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said the bankruptcy protection petition will allow it to preserve cash and continue its operations. Banks, which were the biggest chunk of Eneva's creditors, refused to renew an accord to refinance the company's debt after expiring Nov. 21, the statement noted.