The judge overseeing phone carrier Oi SA’s bankruptcy case agreed on Friday to give creditors and the company more time to reconcile competing restructuring proposals, 16 months into Brazil’s largest in-court reorganization, Reuters reported. The judge, Fernando Viana, acted on a request filed on Thursday by several creditor groups including state-owned banks and bondholders, court documents showed. A creditors’ meeting to vote on a Oi restructuring plan had been scheduled for Monday, but Viana postponed it until Nov. 6.
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The board of Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel will meet on Monday morning to analyze a request by indebted carrier Oi SA to swap billions of reais in regulatory fines for new investments, a source with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. The board will decide on the fate of almost 5 billion reais ($1.58 billion) in fines the company has accumulated, said the source, who requested anonymity as the matter is private, Reuters reported.
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Venezuelan bonds tumbled after the government claimed a surprise victory in regional elections and the opposition cried fraud. The perceived foul play increases the risk of further sanctions against the oil producer. The extra yield investors demand to hold Venezuelan debt over U.S. Treasuries widened 116 basis points to 32.32 percentage points, the highest in the world, Bloomberg News reported. A dollar bond issued by state-run oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA that matures in two weeks fell 1.6 cent to 92.3 cents on the dollar.
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China Development Bank plans to sign a document signaling support for the restructuring plan of debt-laden Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA, said two people close to the discussions. The bank may sign the agreement with Oi as soon as Tuesday, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations, Bloomberg News reported. The Chinese bank has been discussing in court how to restructure $1.2 billion in financing it provided to Oi just six months before the operator filed for the largest judicial recovery in Latin America’s history.
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Russia and Venezuela may sign an agreement on restructuring Venezuelan debt by the end of the year if terms drafted by their finance ministries are approved, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. “In general, we worked out with the finance ministry such conditions,” Siluanov told reporters in Washington, where he attended the International Monetary Fund fall meeting, Bloomberg News reported.
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A group of bondholders that are Oi SA’s largest creditors demanded on Sunday that the company’s top executives meet them as soon as possible to renegotiate a debt plan, Reuters reported. In a letter viewed by Reuters that was addressed to top Oi executives and board members, Oi’s two biggest bondholder groups demanded the carrier’s executives meet in New York to “negotiate in good faith and on an expedited basis the terms of an acceptable plan(s) of reorganization.” The letter was sent by the main advisors of the International Bondholders Committee the Ad Hoc Group of Oi Bondholders.
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Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA submitted a plan on Wednesday to restructure its 65.4 billion-real ($21 billion) debt burden with a proposal to limit the debt-for-equity swap demanded by creditors to 25 percent of capital, Reuters reported. The plan was delivered to a Rio de Janeiro court and creditors of the largest-ever bankruptcy proceeding in Latin America will vote on it on Oct. 23. Oi proposes to inject up to 9 billion reais, of which 6 billion reais would come from a stock offering and the rest through the debt-for-equity swap.
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Investors are gaining confidence that Venezuela will make its next big bond payments. Notes from the state oil company that mature in November climbed to 94.5 cents on the dollar Wednesday, a three-year high, while amortizing bonds due in 2020 rose to their highest price since they were issued last year, Bloomberg News reported. There’s a $985 million payment due Oct. 27 for the 2020 bonds, and $1.2 billion due Nov. 2 on the securities maturing next month.
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When it comes to companies saddled with multibillion-dollar fines, Oi SA sits on a very short list. But the Brazil telecom giant stands out in the notorious club that includes Volkswagen AG, Odebrecht SA and BP Plc. The German carmaker and Odebrecht, a Brazilian builder, each got hit with mega fines after years-long schemes that swindled governments and consumers, Bloomberg News reported. Odebrecht’s misdeeds even helped tip Latin America’s largest nation into a two-year depression that reduced gross domestic product by almost 10 percent. And Oi’s sin? It didn’t fix phone booths fast enough.
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Brazilian phone carrier Oi SA’s board has approved a plan to cut a 65.4 billion-real ($21 billion) debt burden that includes a capital injection, in an effort to emerge faster from bankruptcy protection and avert a government intervention, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday. According to the person, who requested anonymity because the matter remains private, Oi’s largest shareholders have agreed with a management proposal to inject 9 billion reais into the carrier, part of it through a debt-for-equity swap, Reuters reported.
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