It’s only fitting that Oi SA, after filing for the biggest bankruptcy protection in Brazil’s history, is bringing its bitter 18-month restructuring battle to a crescendo with an epic creditors’ meeting at a rock concert venue, Bloomberg News reported. The venue for Tuesday’s gathering of about 4,000 people is RioCentro, the Rio de Janeiro events and convention center near where Rock in Rio was held last September.
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One of China's biggest state-run conglomerates has sued a Venezuelan counterpart in a U.S. court in a dispute over unpaid bills, a sign of Beijing's growing impatience with its socialist South American ally as it slides into bankruptcy, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In the lawsuit filed Nov. 27 in a Houston federal court, a U.S. subsidiary of Sinopec sought more than $23 million in damages from Venezuela's state-run oil company, PDVSA.
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One of China’s biggest state-owned oil companies is suing its Venezuelan counterpart in a US court, in a sign that Beijing’s patience over unpaid debts is running out as the Caribbean nation falls deeper into economic and social chaos, the Financial Times reported. A US subsidiary of Sinopec is suing PDVSA, the Venezuelan state oil company, for $23.7m plus punitive damages over a May 2012 contract to supply steel rebar for $43.5m, half of which it says remains unpaid, according to court documents seen by the Financial Times.
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Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel said it rejected a petition by Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Oi SA, to stop Aurelius Capital Management inking a debt restructuring accord with the struggling Brazilian telecoms company, Reuters reported. The regulator said in a statement on Tuesday, however, that it would open an administrative inquiry to examine claims levied by Societe Mondiale, an investment vehicle of distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure, regarding Aurelius’ holdings in the nation’s telecoms sector.
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Societe Mondiale, a shareholder in Brazilian telecoms company Oi SA affiliated with Brazilian investor Nelson Tanure, filed a complaint with the nation’s telecoms regulator on Friday seeking to limit the actions of a key bondholder, Reuters reported. In the complaint, seen by Reuters, Societe Mondiale asks the competition unit of telecoms regulator Anatel to prohibit the company from signing any contract or engaging in negotiations that “may give legal substance to a deal implying transfer of control to any fund” related to Aurelius Capital Management LP.
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A Brazilian bankruptcy judge overseeing Oi SA’s in-court debt restructuring has put newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Eurico Teles in charge of negotiating with creditors, the telecom operator said in a filing. The decision, disclosed late on Wednesday night, gives Teles powers to draft a debt restructuring plan and present it to the judge without board approval, a move that severely weakens the power of influential shareholder Nelson Tanure, Reuters reported. Preferred shares of Oi were down 1.3 percent at 3.88 reais ($1.19) in early trading.
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Back in May, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. stirred up a public-relations nightmare when its asset-management arm bought almost $3 billion worth of distressed Venezuelan bonds for pennies on the dollar. They were labeled “hunger bonds,” a nod at the country’s deepening humanitarian crisis, and critics pilloried Goldman Sachs online. Now, to make matters worse for the bank, those bonds are in default, Bloomberg News reported.
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It has been called the Schrödinger’s cat of the debt world — the country that simultaneously both is and is not in default. This month, Venezuela announced it would restructure all its foreign debts, the Financial Times reported. Soon after, it began missing deadlines for bond payments and was declared to be in default by rating agencies and others. Nevertheless — apparently — it continues to make payments on its bonds.
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The chief executive of Oi SA has resigned, its largest shareholder said on Friday, as the Brazilian telecommunications firm enters a crucial phase in Latin America’s biggest-ever bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for Portugal’s Pharol SGPS SA, which owns about 27.5 percent of Oi’s voting shares and is part of a controlling shareholder bloc, said it had been informed of Marco Schroeder’s resignation. The move reflects deepening fissures between Oi’s management and board, run by shareholders aligned with distressed debt tycoon Nelson Tanure.
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Crystallex International Corp. and Venezuela agreed to settle a $1.2 billion dispute over the 2011 nationalization of a gold deposit in the South American nation, Bloomberg News reported. Ontario Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey in Toronto approved the settlement on Friday after it was announced two days earlier through filings in Canada. Parts of the agreement remain sealed, including the amount to be paid.
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