A U.S. bankruptcy court is set to hear a dispute involving Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA and major shareholder Bratel Brasil SA, Bratel said on Wednesday, as investor discontent with Oi’s bankruptcy reorganization process shows no signs of abating, Reuters reported. On Friday, Bratel, a subsidiary of Portugal’s Pharol SGPS SA, which owns almost 28 percent of Oi’s common shares, said it had filed a legal complaint in the United States.

The pressure on the Argentine peso showed no sign of letting up on Friday, with the currency sinking to a new low even after the country bit the bullet and turned to the IMF for help in stabilising the economy, the Financial Times reported. The peso slumped 5.4 per cent to 24.00 in early trade, according to Thomson Reuters data. The country’s benchmark Merval stock market snapped a two-day winning streak to trade 2.8 per cent lower, while the country’s century bond slipped again to trade at just a little over 87 cents on the dollar.

A year ago, Argentina was the darling of global investors. So much so that, when it issued a pioneering 100-year bond, with a yield of just 7.9 per cent, investors gobbled it up — ignoring the fact that the country has defaulted eight times in the past 200 years, the Financial Times reported. Whoops! This week President Mauricio Macri asked the IMF for help, after the peso tumbled to record lows. And that century bond? After rising to 105 per cent of its face value late last year, it is now trading nearer to 85 per cent.

Argentina is seeking a “stand-by arrangement” with the International Monetary Fund, according to the government, signalling its willingness to sign up to one of the organisation’s traditional economic adjustment programmes — complete with potentially politically controversial conditions and oversight, the Financial Times reported. Nicolas Dujovne, Argentina’s Treasury minister, had an “introductory meeting” with the IMF’s Alejandro Werner on Wednesday to discuss how negotiations will proceed. Officials estimated they could take around six weeks.

Brazilian development bank BNDES is in talks with four companies interested in acquiring the operation of Viracopos airport, the bank’s chief executive officer said on Tuesday. Viracopos’ operator filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday and CEO Dyogo Oliveira said the bank will try to find a solution before the courts decide on the reorganization, Reuters reported. According to Oliveira, European and Asian companies are interested in operating the airport.

Count Argentina’s smaller companies among the victims of the three surprise interest-rate increases that are rippling through the economy, according to Federico Mac Dougall of First Corporate Finance Advisors SA, Bloomberg News reported. Mac Dougall, the Buenos Aires-based firm’s head of restructuring, said the number of distressed companies seeking his advice has tripled this year, pushing it to levels he hasn’t seen since 2003 following Argentina’s sovereign default.

Argentina asked the International Monetary Fund for financing to help stem a five-month-rout in the peso that is sparking a surge in interest rates and threatening to derail the country’s economic recovery, Bloomberg News reported. “This will allow us to face the new global scenario and avoid a crisis like the ones we have faced before in our history," President Mauricio Macri said in a televised address Tuesday. The president didn’t state how much money was being requested but a person with direct knowledge of the talks said officials are seeking a flexible credit line worth $30 billion.

A company set up to operator Brazil’s Viracopos airport filed for protection from creditors on Monday, according to a securities filing, but assured that operations at the major cargo hub will remain normal, Reuters reported. Aeroportos Brasil SA, which in 2012 won the concession for a 51 percent stake in the Viracopos airport, is jointly owned by Triunfo Participações e Investimentos SA, UTC Engenharia SA and France’s Egis Airport Operation. Triunfo and UTC each own 45 percent of ABSA, as the operator is known, while Egis controls a 10 percent stake.

The price of crude, long a bellwether for oil-rich, cash-poor Venezuela’s ability to repay debt, is anything but that these days. The correlation coefficient between oil and Venezuela’s benchmark 2027 bond is on the verge of turning negative for the first time since January, Bloomberg News reported. That’s happened only three times in the past decade, apart from the three months after President Nicolas Maduro called for a debt restructuring in November.

Since his 2015 election, President Mauricio Macri has pushed to reconnect Argentina to the global financial system, after years of isolation. His approach — emphasizing lower tariffs, accurate economic data, trade pacts and the freer flow of capital — was largely aimed at coaxing foreign investment back to Argentina and ending the economic exile that followed the country’s default in 2001. But over the last week, Argentina has been reminded that when capital is free to flow in, it can also flow out, creating profound economic implications, the International New York Times reported.