South America

Creditors of Brazil's OGX Petroleo e Gas, the bankrupt oil company created by tycoon Eike Batista, agreed not to execute payments or guarantees stipulated in a debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing secured in 2014 by the company, Reuters reported. In a filing published on Friday, the company said creditors agreed to convert DIP financing into common shares of OGX as stipulated in the financial agreement. Creditors would refrain from any new judicial demands or ask for early repayment, the filing said.

Prosecutors are investigating allegations that Brazilian tax authorities solicited bribes from major companies in exchange for reducing their liabilities in corporate tax disputes, officials say, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Tuesday, the Finance Ministry said the alleged scheme wasn’t systematic but rather, involved “isolated acts” carried out by a small group of government tax officials. When prosecutors announced the investigation on March 26 they said that losses to the nation’s treasury totaled $6.1 billion over 15 years.

Schahin Petroleo & Gas SA, a rig and platform supplier to Brazil’s state-run producer, is seeking a credit line to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, said two people familiar with the matter. Bonds tumbled, Bloomberg News reported. Schahin, which supplies Petroleo Brasileiro SA with offshore drilling rigs and production platforms, is temporarily halting operations at five of the units it has leased to Petrobras, it said in an e-mailed statement.

A Brazilian state court accepted a bankruptcy protection request filed by engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS for nine of its units, in the largest corporate failure yet related to the snowballing Petróleo Brasileiro SA corruption scandal. The decision on Thursday by Judge Daniel Carnio Costa at São Paulo State's 1st District of Judicial Recoveries allows Grupo OAS to begin steps to renegotiate about 8 billion reais ($2.5 billion) in debt, according to a statement. OAS has 60 days to present a debt restructuring proposal to all creditors.

Brazilian engineering conglomerate Grupo OAS requested court protection from creditors for nine of its units on Tuesday as it grapples with the fallout from a scandal at state-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA, a major customer, Reuters reported. The filing comes after Grupo OAS struggled for months with the effects of a corruption investigation at Petrobras, as the state oil company is known, which undercut the builder's access to financing and contract payments. An economic downturn, government austerity and a slumping currency have also taken a toll on the company in recent months.

The legal feud between Argentina and a group of “holdout” creditors is inflicting collateral damage on a growing number of victims caught in the crossfire. One of the few winners from the fight might turn out to be Cristina Fernández, the country’s president, the Financial Times reported. As Argentina continues to defy US court orders to pay the holdouts after its 2001 debt default, its citizens are suffering the broader fallout of a struggling economy. Bondholders remain unpaid since the government defaulted again last year.

President Dilma Rousseff's government denied on Wednesday that it is looking to strike a "grand bargain" with Brazilian construction and engineering firms implicated in the kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. With Brazil facing recession, the government is keen to limit economic fallout by reaching leniency deals with some of the 24 companies under investigation that have halted projects and laid off workers after Petrobras stopped paying them.

The deficit-ridden pension fund for Brazilian postal workers is being investigated for alleged reckless management after several years of money-losing bets ranging from investments in Lehman Brothers bonds to Argentine debt, two people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reported.

A Brazilian judge has accepted charges filed by state prosecutors against 11 companies accused of forming a cartel to raise prices on the construction and upkeep of subway and train systems in the state of Sao Paulo, The Wall Street Journal reported. A press officer of the prosecutor’s office said Saturday that Judge Marcos Pimentel Tamassia accepted the charges that involve contracts signed between 2000 and 2007. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to comment the case.

Former billionaire Eike Batista was fined 1.4 million Brazilian reais ($429,000) Wednesday by Brazil’s market regulator for failing to provide shareholders with timely information while his industrial empire was collapsing in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Batista plans to appeal the fines, one of his attorneys said. Once Brazil’s richest person, Mr. Batista over the last two years has sold assets and dismantled his group of companies to pay debt. He also is on trial on market-manipulation and insider-trading charges related to his oil company, charges he has denied.