Brazil's Raízen Energia SA is interested in bidding for an ethanol mill owned by the Brazilian subsidiary of India's sugar producer Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd, which will be auctioned in early September, two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Raízen, which is a Brazilian joint venture between Cosan SA Industria e Comércio and Royal Dutch Shell, made a late request to join the auction and would have to receive a special authorization from creditors to bid, the sources said, asking to remain anonymous as they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The threat of US sanctions against Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela escalated this week, with vice-president Mike Pence warning of “more to come”. But investors appeared unmoved, the Financial Times reported. While bond prices initially dipped on Wednesday on reports that new sanctions could ban trading in new issues from the Venezuelan government and state oil group Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), several of the bonds rebounded on Thursday.

The Brazilian unit of struggling Spanish energy and infrastructure group Abengoa SA obtained approval from creditors on Friday for its in-court debt restructuring plan, said a lawyer representing one of the creditors, Reuters reported. Abengoa has around 3.4 billion reais ($1.08 billion) in debt with suppliers and banks in Brazil and has filed for court protection against creditors last year, after stopping several projects for lack of funding.

Brazil’s central bank chief is facing the tough reality that weaning the country’s largest businesses off of multi-billion dollar subsidies is easier said than done. Over the past fortnight, Ilan Goldfajn has lobbied dozens of lawmakers over legislation that would essentially eliminate below-market rates on long-term loans from state bank BNDES before the proposal expires on Sept. 7. In a sign of the importance the central bank places in the bill, no fewer than four directors attended its reading in a congressional committee hearing on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported.

Brazilian President Michel Temer has burned through political capital fighting corruption charges and is struggling to push forward his economic agenda meant to rein in a gaping budget deficit, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Even allies in Congress now doubt he can achieve anything but watered-down measures, likely delaying any fix to Brazil's fiscal crisis until the economy recovers from deep recession. With continued deficits, Brazil risks further downgrades in its credit rating.

At what point does a country’s political situation become intolerable for bond investors? That is the question facing holders of Venezuela’s debt as the nation’s descent into strife raises questions about investment ethics, the Financial Times reported. This week, Credit Suisse circulated a memo outlining a ban on trading in two Venezuelan bonds, reflecting growing unease about the reputational risks of being associated with a country under the increasingly autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro.

Credit Suisse is banning its traders from dealing with a batch of Venezuelan bonds, fearing any potential reputational fallout from being seen to support the increasingly autocratic government of Nicolás Maduro, the Financial Times reported. Goldman Sachs was earlier this year lambasted by the country’s opposition for its asset management arm’s purchase of $2.8bn worth of Venezuelan bonds issued by the state oil company, PDVSA, which opposition members said amounted to a financial lifeline for the authorities.

Oi SA posted a wider-than-expected second-quarter loss as the Brazilian phone carrier was forced to close currency-hedging positions because of its protracted bankruptcy protection case, Reuters reported. Oi lost a net 3.303 billion reais ($1 billion) last quarter, about 16 times the size of the first quarter's 200 million-real shortfall, according to a securities filing on Wednesday. The loss was much more than an average consensus estimate of 332.8 million reais compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Predicting when Venezuela will finally default has been a decade-long parlor game for bond buyers, but recent events add urgency to the exercise, Bloomberg News reported. After years of mismanagement, the country appears closer and closer to running out of money. Adding to investors’ concern is the increasingly anti-democratic turn of President Nicolas Maduro, whose move to rewrite the constitution and strip power from congress has been met with U.S. sanctions.

PDG Realty SA, the largest Brazilian homebuilder to have filed for bankruptcy protection, reached a non-binding agreement with bank creditors as part of restructuring talks, the company said in a filing late on Friday. PDG filed for bankruptcy protection in February after citing a severe cash crunch and onerous debt of 7.3 billion reais ($2.33 billion), Reuters reported. It presented an in-court reorganization plan on June 7.