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.

A final accord on Argentina’s debt with the Paris Club group of creditors could take months to negotiate and wouldn’t place the country’s economic growth and social programs at risk, Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said, Bloomberg reported. Kicillof, presented a proposal to Paris Club Chairman Ramon Fernandez in the French capital yesterday. Officials from the group’s 19 countries will discuss the offer tomorrow, Kicillof said at a press conference in Buenos Aires today. He declined to give details of the plan.

Bankrupt oil company Oleo e Gas Participações S.A., controlled by Brazilian businessman Eike Batista, said on Tuesday it signed a deal for a bridge loan of up to $50 million to finance operations as it works with creditors to restructure its debts, Reuters reported. Obtaining the loans was one of the requirement in an agreement the company reached with bond holders on Dec. 24 to convert Oleo e Gas debt into stock. Oleo e Gas was formerly known as OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA.

What the US Supreme Court decides in a key court case involving Argentina and its bondholders will greatly impact how sovereign debt restructuring is done in the future, the BBC reported. The essence of the decade-long lawsuit between the country and a handful of its creditors is: Can bondholders demand full repayment of what they lent to a country even when others have settled for a haircut? Argentina's 2002 default of around $100bn (£61bn) was the largest at the time, until Greece's around 200bn euros debt restructuring.