South America

Brazil's Oleo e Gas Participações SA has won a final court ruling to add international financing unit OGX Austria GmbH to its bankruptcy filing, a lawyer for the company said on Wednesday. The approval by the 14th Civil Part of the Rio de Janeiro-State Justice Tribunal addresses concerns that failure to include foreign subsidiaries in the bankruptcy petition could mean any restructuring plan approved by a Brazilian judge might be open to legal challenges in Brazil or abroad, Reuters reported. OGX Austria has sold $3.63 billion in bonds, the bulk of the parent's debt.

OSX Brasil SA, the bankrupt shipbuilding company controlled by former billionaire Eike Batista, is in talks with Cerberus Capital Management LP and a number of unnamed investors for a potential debtor-in-possession financing deal, Reuters reported. Currently no agreement has been struck between OSX and potential sources of the loan, commonly known as DIP financing, the Rio de Janeiro-based company said in a securities filing on Monday. OSX's focus at this point is what to do with three floating production storage and offloading vessels it owns, according to the filing.

OSX Brasil SA, the shipbuilding and ship-leasing company controlled by businessman Eike Batista, said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it was in talks with bondholders over the lease terms of an oil production ship, Reuters reported. The ship, OSX-3, is a floating production, storage and offloading vessel that is handling oil and gas output from the Tubarão Martelo offshore oil field east of Rio de Janeiro owned by Batista's Óleo e Gás Participações SA. Oleo e Gas filed for Latin America's largest-ever bankruptcy protection on Oct. 30.

Creditors agreed to the terms of $215 million in funding for Eike Batista’s Oleo & Gas Participacoes SA that will strip control from the former billionaire, the oil company said in a statement, Bloomberg News reported. The arrangement with the company’s bondholders entails subsidiary OGX’s issuance of debentures in two tranches, with the first $125 million expected in mid-February.

Funeral home director Carlos Bianchi's dilemma over how much to charge for his coffins goes a long way in illustrating the economic woes plaguing both Argentina and Venezuela, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Argentine government's currency devaluation last month, which helped spur a global selloff in emerging-market currencies, also sent prices soaring here. What confounds Mr. Bianchi's calculation is that he must use an unsteady and weakening currency, the peso, to buy imported parts for his wares.

Jorge Contrera checked a pair of soiled shoes from top to bottom, tried to buff them with his shirt sleeve, then paid 40 pesos ($5) for his 8-year-old daughter’s present. Before Argentina’s devaluation last month, he planned to surprise her with a new pair. “Do you know how I feel buying my daughter used shoes?” said 29-year-old Contrera, a welder who’s currently working as a delivery man.

Bankrupt oil producer Óleo e Gás Participações SA, controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, received court authorization late Monday to use its assets to guarantee a loan critical to keeping the company in operation, Reuters reported. Gilberto Clovis Faria Matos, the judge handling Óleo e Gás' bankruptcy protection filing, ruled that company assets may be used as collateral for up to $200 million of debtor-in-possession, or DIP, financing, according to documents filed with the Rio de Janeiro state court of justice.

Bankrupt oil producer Óleo e Gás Participações SA has delayed detailing its restructuring plan to creditors until Jan. 31 as it tries to secure new funding, the company said in a statement on Friday. Óleo e Gás, controlled by Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista whose business empire collapsed last year, and its creditors were discussing terms of a potential $200 million debtor-in-possession, or DIP, loan, two sources told Reuters earlier on Friday. The company had enough funds to stay afloat and the delay was unlikely to disrupt operations, according to the sources, who declined to be identified.

Argentina's government allowed its beleaguered peso to slide farther against the U.S. currency on Friday, saying it would ease limits on the purchase of dollars to stem a possible currency crisis like the one that hammered the country in 2001-2002, The Wall Street Journal reported. Economists welcomed the moves, but doubted they would work without an attack on the real source of the country's mounting economic problems: rampant government spending and a loose money policy that has caused one of the world's highest rates of inflation, estimated at more than 25% a year.

A crucial deadline for the restructuring agreement of Brazilian oil company Oleo e Gas Participacoes SA, controlled by businessman Eike Batista, might not be met this week, according to two people familiar with the situation, The Wall Street Journal reported. In one of Latin America's largest bankruptcy cases, OGP filed for protection from creditors in late October.