A group of Brazilian and foreign investors led by buyout firm Laep Investments may bid for Brazilian power distributor Celpa, betting that a bold turnaround could save the debt-laden company from near-bankruptcy. Laep, a private equity firm that invests mainly in distressed companies, may team up with two energy funds from the United States and one from Canada to bid for Celpa, Luiz Cezar Fernandes, chief executive for São Paulo-based Laep, told Reuters. He declined to elaborate on potential terms.

A YPF bond due in July next year is likely to default, and while Repsol YPF SA should escape a similar fate, this prospect could be yet another headache for the Spanish company after YPF's operations were seized by Argentina's government last week. Analysts expect that YPF's nationalization will almost certainly lead to a default on its bonds. Argentina's proposal to take over 51% of YPF would cut Repsol' stake to just 6% from 57% currently. Repsol, which denounced the takeover, has vowed to take the dispute to court.

Argentina’s billionaire Eskenazi family risks default on more than $2 billion of debt after the government seized control of oil company YPF SA and said dividends would probably be reinvested in the company, Bloomberg reported. The family’s Petersen Group, which has 25 percent of YPF, owes Spanish partner Repsol YPF SA 1.45 billion euros ($1.9 billion) after it bought a stake in YPF, the Madrid-based company said April 16. The Eskenazis counted on YPF dividend payments of as much as 90 percent of profit to repay Repsol and about $680 million of loans with banks including Citigroup Inc.

President Cristina Kirchner, in a move that marks a watershed in expanding the state's grip on the economy, said she will send a bill to Congress to nationalize Argentina's largest oil-and-gas company, YPF SA, The Wall Street Journal reported. The move fired up a battle with the company's Spanish controlling shareholder and the Madrid government. Under the proposal, which declares the petroleum industry of "national public interest," Argentina's federal and provincial governments would take 51% of the company, now majority owned by Repsol YPF SA of Spain.

While not necessarily predicting a bust to Brazil’s boom, a budding group of turnaround professionals in the South American nation are getting ready for what they see as an inevitable shakeup, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported.

Rede Energia, the cash-strapped Brazilian power distribution company, will reach out to creditors to seek an out of court debt restructuring as it pledged to keep servicing its onerous foreign liabilities, Reuters reported. The company will contact holders of its U.S. dollar-denominated perpetual notes as "part of a potential debt restructuring program," according to a securities filing signed on Monday by Maurício Halewicz, the company's investors relations director.

China intends to extend renminbi loans to other Brics nations, in another step towards the internationalisation of its currency, the Financial Times reported. The China Development Bank will sign a memorandum of understanding in New Delhi with its Brazilian, Russian, Indian and South African counterparts on March 29, say people familiar with their talks. Under the agreement CDB, which lends mainly in dollars overseas, will make renminbi loans available, while the other Brics nations’ development banks will also extend loans denominated in their respective currencies.

Banks began cutting access to credit to debt-laden Brazilian electricity distributor Celpa following news reports that its parent company, Grupo Rede Energia, was up for sale, the company's largest shareholder said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Celpa filed last week for bankruptcy protection in a Brazilian court, citing a "very difficult financial and economic situation." Celpa's access to credit has dropped dramatically since November, when news of Grupo Rede's sale first arose, Jorge Queiroz Jr., who owns 54 percent of Rede, told regulators at a hearing.

Celpa, an electricity distribution company owned by Brazil's Grupo Rede Energia , filed for bankruptcy protection under Brazilian law on Tuesday, according to a securities filing, Reuters reported. "In spite of the efforts by management with creditors and potential investors (in the company), the request for bankruptcy protection was inevitable as the financial and economic situation of Celia aggravated," the filing said, adding that the company aims to keep serving its customers. Read more.

The International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday that global growth prospects had dimmed as the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone entered a “perilous new phase,” the International Herald Tribune reported. Releasing quarterly updates of three reports on the outlooks for the economy, debt and global financial stability, the fund cut its estimates of global growth this year to 3.25 percent, from the 4 percent it forecast in September, on “sharply escalated” risks emanating from Europe.