Elliott Investment Management's affiliate Amber Energy plans to keep Citgo Petroleum's refineries, terminals and other connected assets once it takes over the Venezuela-owned U.S. refiner, following the completion of a court-ordered auction, sources close to the preparations said, Reuters reported. A Delaware court last week approved Amber's $5.9 billion bid for Citgo's parent PDV Holding and ordered the sale of PDV's shares, wrapping up an auction aimed at compensating creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela.
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A U.S. judge on Saturday authorized the sale of shares in the Venezuela-owned parent of Citgo Petroleum to an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management, following his approval earlier this week of a $5.9 billion bid from the company in a court-organized auction to pay Venezuela-linked creditors, Reuters reported. The sale order is the last major legal step to wrap a two-year auction aimed at paying up to 15 creditors for debt defaults and expropriations in the South American country.
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A federal judge endorsed Elliott Investment Management’s roughly $6 billion bid for Venezuela’s shares of Citgo Petroleum, pushing the forced sale of the country’s prized foreign asset closer to completion, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark approved a court-appointed special master’s selection of Elliott as the winning bid, saying that although it didn’t have the highest sticker price, it was the best all-around bid and the one most certain to close.
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Chiquita Brands, the world’s largest banana producer, has engaged investment bankers to conduct a review of certain assets as the company seeks to move forward from an adverse legal judgment stemming from past operations in Colombia, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Chiquita is working with Houlihan Lokey to examine certain business lines, conduct valuation analysis, and assess options for acquisitions, divestitures, and other combinations.
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A planned $20 billion bailout to Argentina from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup has been shelved as bankers pivot instead to a smaller, short-term loan package to support the financially distressed government, the Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Trump administration had been seeking to bolster Argentine President Javier Milei’s pro-reform party when they announced a pair of financial lifelines this fall. The package included a $20 billion currency swap with the U.S.
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In an executive order, Trump exempted dozens of Brazilian food products, including coffee and beef, from the 40% increased tariffs he imposed in an ill-fated attempt to help former President Jair Bolsonaro dodge a coup attempt trial, Bloomberg News reported. Together with prior exemptions, the move will leave many of the nation’s major exports free from heightened US duties, a victory for an agricultural powerhouse that ranks as the world’s largest beef and coffee producer and counts the US as its No. 2 trade partner.
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A handful of Brazilian companies are disclosing exposure to Banco Master SA following the liquidation of the troubled lender and the arrest of its chief executive amid a sweeping corruption probe, Bloomberg News reported. Health-care provider Oncoclinicas reported holding 433 million reais ($81.1 million) in Master time deposits, known locally as CDBs.
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Brazil’s government on Tuesday shut down Banco Master, a bank worth up to $16 billion in assets, following a sprawling federal police fraud investigation, the Associated Press reported. Central Bank executive Fabio Carlos Ferreira said in a statement that all assets belonging to Banco Master and its current and former administrators have been seized. The bank, which has faced liquidity problems for months, is now under the control of a government-appointed administrator.
Brazil is looking at taxing the use of cryptocurrencies for international payments, two officials with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters, closing a loophole in the country's usual levy on foreign-exchange transactions. One of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the confidential talks, said the Finance Ministry is looking at expanding its financial transaction tax (IOF) to some cross-border transfers using virtual assets and stablecoins that the central bank classified this month as forex operations.
Brazil's central bank effectively halted operations of mid-sized lender Banco Master, which had struggled in recent months with mounting liquidity pressures, on Tuesday as police arrested its controlling shareholder, Reuters reported. The regulator named a liquidator to handle creditor claims and sell assets, closing a turbulent chapter for Master, which had grown rapidly through an aggressive strategy built on high-yield debt sold through investment platforms.
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