Brazil

Brazilian power producer Eneva SA, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December, said on Tuesday it failed to meet a debt payment on June 15 after one of its creditors refused to postpone the maturity date, Reuters reported. The company, which is controlled by Germany's E.ON and fallen Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, said in a statement the payments were linked to the Parnaiba II power project in the northeastern state of Maranhão, adding that negotiations with creditors were continuing. Eneva did not give a figure for the debt payment.

Dilma Rousseff stepped up her campaign to rescue Brazil’s flagging economy, announcing an infrastructure package worth almost R$200bn ($65bn) on Tuesday, the Financial Times reported. Brazil’s president outlined plans to sell to the private sector new concessions to build and operate nearly 7,000km of roads, as well as four large airports and a number of ports and railways. Ms Rousseff said the aim of the package was to “invest to revive economic growth”.

South America’s largest economy faces a difficult balancing act to avoid a potentially disastrous spiral of economic contraction as it seeks to control inflation, the Financial Times reported. Brazil’s planning minister Nelson Barbosa warned that he expected only a very gradual recovery from this year’s recession, in contrast with previous downturns during the past decade when the country immediately bounced back with rapid growth.

Thirteen Brazilian and international banks filed a lawsuit in New York on Tuesday against two units of ailing engineering and oil conglomerate Grupo Schahin to recover $371 million in overdue principal and interest on loans, Reuters reported. The lawsuit comes weeks after Schahin sought for protection from creditors in Brazil and the United States, and fired 2,500 workers as a corruption scandal at key client Petróleo Brasileiro SA hampered its efforts to refinance up to 6.5 billion reais ($2.1 billion) in debt.

Brazilian engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS expects revenue to shrink more than 50 percent by 2017 as it sells operations and refocuses on civil construction after filing for bankruptcy protection due to a bribery scandal at a state-run oil company, Reuters reported. The filing by OAS, the third-biggest builder in Brazil last year, was the highest-profile bankruptcy filing to follow a sweeping police investigation of a price-fixing and kickback scheme at state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras.

Another Brazilian company has fallen to the corruption scandal surrounding Brazil’s petroleum giant, Petrobras: Schahin Group requested on Friday a bankruptcy court’s protection for 28 of its subsidiaries.

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.