Brazil

Brazil’s next finance minister, to be appointed within weeks, must wrestle with a growing government problem: not enough money, The Wall Street Journal reported. Shoring up Brazil’s books is crucial for the nation to avoid a potential credit rating downgrade, which would increase its costs of borrowing. But there are short-term economic pitfalls as well as political challenges for President Dilma Rousseff , who faces a more conservative and divided Congress than she did in her first term. Among her first tasks is avoiding Brazil’s version of the fiscal cliff.

A Brazilian court has approved a bankruptcy protection petition filed by MMX Sudeste Mineracao SA, an iron-ore mining company controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, the company said on Wednesday in a securities filing, Reuters reported. It was the third time in a year that a unit of the former billionaire's EBX industrial group has sought protection from creditors. The decision was taken by a court in Belo Horizonte in the Minas Gerais state. MMX Sudeste made the request after negotiations with creditors and efforts to seek new investors failed, MMX said in a filing on Oct. 15.

Grupo Oi SA, the Brazilian telecommunications company struggling with rising debt and shrinking market share, said the demise of an investment vehicle that owed the company's Portugal Telecom SGPS SA unit almost 1 billion euros ($1.28 billion) is unlikely to impact operations, Reuters reported. In a filing with Brazil's securities watchdog CVM, Oi said its Oi, Portugal Telecom and TelPart units will not be affected by the collapse of Rioforte, as the vehicle is known.

The main subsidiary of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's iron ore mining company MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA filed a bankruptcy protection petition before a Brazilian court on Wednesday, Reuters reported. MMX Sudeste Mineracao SA, the unit that holds MMX's main mining assets, made the request after negotiations with creditors and efforts to seek new investors failed, MMX said in a filing. MMX Sudeste is the main operating unit of MMX and is developing iron ore mines in Minas Gerais state on its own and in partnership with Usiminas, one of the largest steelmakers in the Americas.

A year after the epic collapse of his industrial empire, Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista's financial and legal troubles appear far from over, Reuters reported. Once worth more than $30 billion and listed as the world's eighth-richest man by Forbes Magazine, Batista says his debts now exceed his assets by $1 billion and the value of his remaining stakes in the oil, shipbuilding, mining and transportation companies he founded continues to shrink. Batista also faces criminal and regulatory investigations into suspected insider trading and fraud.

Brazil's federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against Eike Batista, a once high-flying Brazilian businessman, compounding his legal troubles. Prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro charged Mr. Batista with financial crimes and requested the freezing of 1.5 billion Brazilian reais ($640 million) in assets belonging to the businessman and people close to him, according to documents posted on the public prosecutor's website. A judge will now examine the charges and decide if the case should go ahead, according to Sergio Bermudes, Mr. Batista's lawyer. Mr.

Workers in Brazil’s automotive industry have become accustomed to seeing their sector break new records, with Latin America’s biggest country becoming the fourth largest car producer in the world over the past decade, the Financial Times reported. But last week, 930 employees at General Motors’ plant in São José dos Campos near São Paulo were forced to accept a five-month “lay-off” or suspension to avoid outright dismissals.

The Brazilian government on Wednesday announced measures aimed at increasing bank lending, including granting banks permission to issue home-equity loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The measures also include reducing documentation for mortgages and streamlining the process to seize loan collateral. "Credit supply is running very low. The new measures will create conditions for the banks to offer more loans," Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters after the announcement.

Brazil's Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA, the bankrupt oil company controlled by Eike Batista, said yesterday that Brazilian buyout firm Cambuhy Investimentos bought shares worth 199.9 million reais ($87 million) that it held in Parnaíba Gás Natural, formerly known as OGX Maranhão, Reuters reported yesterday. The 245,728,660 shares were auctioned on Wednesday, the company said in a securities filing. Parnaíba was separated from OGX in October in an operation that generated 344 million reais, which was crucial for the survival of Batista's oil company.

Banco Espirito Santo (BES) could be sued over a loan that one of its founding family's holding companies failed to repay to Portugal Telecom, sources said on Thursday, as credit rating agencies downgraded the bank and its key shareholder. Still, Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said the problems faced by BES, Portugal's largest listed bank, and the family's Espirito Santo Group did not pose an imminent danger to the country's financial system and reiterated the government did not plan to use public funds to help the bank.