Creditors of Brazilian electric utility Light on Wednesday approved the firm's restructuring plan, which includes a capital injection of up to 1.5 billion reais ($288.33 million), the company said, Reuters reported. Light, which operates Rio de Janeiro's power service, filed for bankruptcy last year, with its debt totaling 11 billion reais. As part of the proposed restructuring, Light would receive up to 1.5 billion reais in capital, including 1 billion reais from its reference shareholders, the trio of businessmen Nelson Tanure, Ronaldo Cezar Coelho and Carlos Alberto Sicupira.
South America
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Consumer prices in Brazil rose less than expected in the month to mid-May, data from statistics agency IBGE showed on Tuesday, as the impact on food inflation from recent floods turned out to be lighter than initially feared, Reuters reported. The latest inflation reading, economists say, might ease pressure on the central bank to halt its ongoing monetary easing cycle. Prices as measured by the IPCA-15 index were up 0.44% in the period, IBGE said, picking up from 0.21% in April but below the 0.48% rise expected by economists polled by Reuters.
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Brazilian airline Gol expects its exit of chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to involve a $1.5 billion capital injection through the issuance of new shares and refinancing of $2 billion in debt, it said in a securities filing on Monday, Reuters reported. Gol, one of Brazil's largest carriers, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States earlier this year after struggling with heavy debt and delayed deliveries from planemaker Boeing.
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Brazil's central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto said on Monday that policymakers believe inflation expectations should stabilize and improve over time, after recently citing concerns about them deviating from the official target, Reuters reported. "It is generally possible to be optimistic when we look at the reasons (for the unanchoring of inflation expectations)," he said at an event organized by the business group Lide in Sao Paulo.
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Venezuela’s opposition is weighing a move that would slow the sale of oil assets under its control by having Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s holding company file for bankruptcy in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Opposition-appointed Petroleos de Venezuela executives are seeking to retain control of their most important overseas asset, which is up for auction, and are mulling using a U.S. chapter 11 filing to block finalization of its sale, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the tactic.
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Brazil's Superior Court of Justice has denied state-run oil company Petrobras an appeal against the collection of some 987 million reais ($192.68 million) in taxes, the company said late on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The taxes relate to sales of oil derivatives from March 2002 to October 2003, Petrobras said in a securities filing. The firm said it would assess whether a fresh appeal could be lodged against the decision.
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Unigel, the struggling Brazilian fertilizer maker, obtained approval from a majority of creditors including Pacific Investment Management Co. for its out-of-court restructuring plan, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of more than 50% of its debt backed the proposal, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak about it. The company had until Monday to gather support from more than 50% of creditors and avoid a bankruptcy filing. Unigel didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
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Argentina risks struggling to service some of its debt if it’s forced to pay out $1.5 billion in damages a UK court awarded to investors last year, lawyers for the South American nation have warned, Bloomberg News reported. Hedge funds including Palladian Partners LP last year won a UK High Court ruling that Argentina must compensate investors for losses in the country’s growth-linked securities after it changed the method of calculating gross domestic product.
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Brazil's central bank announced on Monday that it has decided to divide the process of regulating crypto-assets and virtual asset service providers into phases, with regulatory proposals expected by the end of this year, Reuters reported. The decision effectively delays the completion of the process following a 2022 law on the subject, which paved the way for subsequent regulation by the central bank. In a congressional hearing last year, the bank's director of regulation, Otavio Damaso, had projected regulation to be wrapped up by June 2024.
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Chile’s economy recorded the fastest quarterly growth since 2021, when government stimulus fueled domestic demand during the pandemic, as both mining output and consumption increased while slowing inflation and falling interest rates provided much-needed relief, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product rose 1.9% in the first quarter compared with the prior three months, a tad less than the 2% median forecast from analysts in a Bloomberg survey. From a year ago, the economy expanded 2.3%, the central bank reported on Monday.
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