Brazil

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.

Former billionaire Eike Batista was fined 1.4 million Brazilian reais ($429,000) Wednesday by Brazil’s market regulator for failing to provide shareholders with timely information while his industrial empire was collapsing in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Batista plans to appeal the fines, one of his attorneys said. Once Brazil’s richest person, Mr. Batista over the last two years has sold assets and dismantled his group of companies to pay debt. He also is on trial on market-manipulation and insider-trading charges related to his oil company, charges he has denied.

Oleo e Gas Participações SA, a Brazilian oil company under bankruptcy protection, on Monday said it suspended payments for an oil-production vessel to bankrupt ship-leasing company OSX Brasil SA for six months, Reuters reported. Oleo e Gas, formerly known as OGX Petroleo e Gas Participações SA, said in a statement that it made the decision after being unable to come to an agreement on Friday over future payments to OSX for the OSX-3 floating production, storage and offloading ship (FPSO) in a hearing before a bankruptcy judge in Rio de Janeiro.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across Brazil on Sunday to express their ire at President Dilma Rousseff, raising pressure on her as she grapples with an onslaught of challenges including an economy mired in stagnation, a sweeping bribery scandal and a revolt by some of the most powerful figures in her governing coalition, the International New York Times reported. The protests, organized to coincide with commemorations of the re-establishment of democracy 30 years ago after a long military dictatorship, reflect rising disenchantment with Ms.

Brazil’s currency slid to a 10-year low against the dollar on Wednesday as concerns grew that a corruption scandal at state-run oil group Petrobras engulfing the country’s political elite threatens to scupper the government’s austerity drive, the Financial Times reported. The real fell 2.2 per cent against the dollar to R$2.9947 after the senate leader Renan Calheiros of the PMDB, the main coalition partner of President Dilma Rousseff, blocked an important fiscal measure in congress that is seen as essential to helping reverse Brazil’s growing budget deficit.