Grupo Schahin said on Monday it can execute a reorganization plan after an appeals court favored the ailing Brazilian engineering and rig-leasing conglomerate over disgruntled creditors, according to a statement, Reuters reported. The reorganization, confirmed by a bankruptcy court a year ago, was challenged by a 13-bank consortium led by Itaú Unibanco SA, the statement said. Schahin's reorganization foresees repayment of 6.5 billion reais ($2 billion) of defaulted debt over a 15-year period, without any deductions, the company said.

It’s hard to find a pessimist among Brazil investors these days, even though there’s plenty to be worried about. Traders who pushed the real and Ibovespa stock index to some of the world’s biggest gains over the past year see a rosy outlook for President Michel Temer’s chances of pushing through pension, labor and tax reforms that are needed for Brazil to regain investment-grade status, Bloomberg News reported. They’re ignoring signs of a sluggish economy, chaotic politics and a new chapter in a corruption scandal that threatens to paralyze the government.

Investigations into Brazil’s embattled construction giant Odebrecht SA are exposing a larger network of graft in Latin America than was already revealed in a massive anticorruption settlement, according to prosecutors in several countries, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since the firm admitted in December to paying nearly $800 million in bribes, authorities across Latin America have launched new investigations that are beginning to ensnare former high-ranking officials and other companies beyond Odebrecht.

Pharol SGPS SA, the controlling shareholder of Brazil's debt-laden telephone carrier Oi SA, said in a statement on Tuesday that Rafael Mora had resigned as Pharol's executive director and a member of Oi's board, Reuters reported. João do Passo Vicente Ribeiro, previously named as Mora's alternate on Oi's board, will take his board seat, according to a Pharol press representative. The statement did not give a reason for Mora's resignation. Read more.

A São Paulo court granted Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA bankruptcy protection on Thursday, the company said in a securities filing. PDG sought protection from creditors last week to enable it to restructure its debt, Brazil's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. Read more.

Brazil’s government can’t waive Oi SA’s debt with a local regulator and state-run banks, the communications minister said, denying the phone carrier a lifeline that would have helped it pull out of the biggest bankruptcy in the country’s history, Bloomberg News reported. “The government can’t let go of resources, they are public resources, debt with the public administration," Science and Technology Minister Gilberto Kassab said Sunday in an interview in Barcelona, Spain. The debt with the regulator is Oi’s main problem with the government, said Kassab, who also oversees communications.

Brazilian homebuilder PDG Realty SA said it was seeking protection from creditors by filing on Wednesday to restructure its debt in court, the country's second publicly listed builder to do so in less than six months, Reuters reported. PDG's gross debt was 5.4 billion reais ($1.75 billion) at the end of September, according to a quarterly earnings report. The company had 235 million reais of cash on hand at the time.

Grupo BTG Pactual, the Brazilian lender that slashed its workforce in 2016 and sold off assets to survive a liquidity crisis, is investing in Chile with plans to start lending, Bloomberg News reported. Rodrigo Oyarzo joined BTG to head the new credit business, according to Juan Guillermo Aguero, BTG’s chief executive officer for Chile. The idea is to use the Sao Paulo-based company’s banking license in Chile, obtained in 2014, to provide more “strategic” loans to clients tied to mergers and capital-markets transactions, Aguero said.

For a quarter century, one man ruled the Rio Parana, the mighty Mississippi of Argentina. His name is Omar Suarez. Along the Parana, the nation’s pipeline for key exports including soybeans, corn and wheat, he is better known as El Caballo: a hard-charging horse. Little moved down the river unless Suarez, a union boss, received tribute, authorities say. For crews and companies alike, El Caballo epitomized the culture of corruption that has held back Argentina’s economy for decades, Bloomberg News reported. Today, the story of El Caballo is, in a way, playing out across the country.

PDG Realty SA, the Brazilian homebuilder struggling with a cash crunch, is considering surrendering buildings and land given as collateral to creditors ahead of a potential in-court reorganization, two people directly involved in the plan said. São Paulo-based PDG hired restructuring advisory firm RK Partners in November to come up with a rescue plan, Reuters reported. Terms of the plan contemplate giving creditors control of some assets guaranteeing debt issued by about 700 special purpose vehicles created to fund projects, the people said.