June 18, 2019
Brazil's Odebrecht files for bankruptcy protection after years of graft probes
Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht SA filed on Monday for
bankruptcy protection, aiming to restructure 51 billion reais ($13 billion) of
debt in what would be one of Latin America’s largest-ever in-court debt
restructurings.
The bankruptcy filing comes after years of struggles for Odebrecht, the biggest
of the Brazilian engineering groups caught in a sweeping political corruption
investigation that has rippled across Latin America.
ブラジル連邦警察が2014年3月17日に，国営石油公社Petro-brasをめぐる汚職事件への捜査（通称「ラバ・ジャット捜査（Operação Lava Jato＝Car Wash）を開始した。同事件では，ペトロブラスが長年にわたって常習的に取引先企業との契約で水増し請求をさせ，そこから捻出した裏金を政党や有力政治家に繰り返し渡していたとされ，政財界を巻き込むブラジル史上最大の汚職事件となった。
http://repository.ris.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/11266/6547/1/%5B069-095%5D.pdf2016/12/22ブラジル建設大手オデブレヒトは21日、米国の海外腐敗行為防止法（FCPA）違反で、米国など3カ国の司法当局に罰金計35億ドル（約4100億円）を支払うと発表した。同社はブラジル国営石油会社ペトロブラスを舞台とした汚職疑惑で、有力政治家らに不正献金を提供していたと米裁判所に認定された。
オデブレヒトは今後23年間で計26億ドル、同社傘下で石油化学大手のブラスケンが9億5700万ドルを支払う。罰金は米国、ブラジル、スイスの司法当局が受け取る。
オデブレヒトは同日、「業務を道徳的に遂行するために、適切で必要な対策を講じる」との声明を公表した。前最高経営責任者（CEO）のマルセロ・オデブレヒト氏はすでにブラジル国内で、贈賄罪などの有罪判決を受けている。
2019/6/4 LyondellBasell、ブラジルのBraskemの買収をギブアップ
In the filing, the company asks the judge to bar the group’s seven largest
creditors - six banks and an investment fund - from taking possession or selling
shares in the group’s crown jewel, its controlling stake in petrochemical
company Braskem SA.
Shares in Braskem are pledged as collateral to the creditors. But Odebrecht says
the Braskem stake is essential to its restructuring, as the petrochemical
company was responsible for nearly 80% of the conglomerate’s revenues in 2018.
Odebrecht said the bankruptcy protection was the best way to conclude its debt
restructuring as creditors have sought to seize assets pledged as collateral for
unpaid loans.
The debt restructuring relates to the parent company Odebrecht SA and a network
of holding companies.
The group’s main operating businesses are excluded, including
Braskem,
construction unit OEC, oil company
Ocyan, shipbuilder Enseada,
Odebrecht
Transport and homebuilder Incorporadora OR. Sugar and ethanol subsidiary
Atvos
Agroindustrial Participacoes SA, which already filed for a separate bankruptcy
protection, is also excluded.
Odebrecht said its total debt reaches 98.5 billion reais, including intercompany
loans and debt that is not subjected to in-court restructuring.
Odebrecht expanded from its construction roots into one of Brazil’s biggest
conglomerates but began its fall from grace in 2014, when it became a principal
target of the country’s largest-ever corruption probe.
Former chief executive Marcelo Odebrecht, grandson of the founder, was arrested
in 2015 and later sentenced to 19 years in jail for corruption. He has been
under house arrest since 2017, barred from having any say in the company’s
running.
In 2016, Odebrecht agreed to the world’s largest-ever corruption leniency fine
with prosecutors in Brazil, the United States, and Switzerland,
paying at least
$3.5 billion. The scandal over bribes for public works contracts spread to other
countries where Odebrecht did business, including Peru, Mexico, Argentina and
Colombia.
Since then, the group has been selling assets to raise cash as borrowing costs
climbed. It sold Brazilian sanitation company Odebrecht Ambiental to Canada’s
Brookfield Asset Management for $800 million and Peruvian hydroelectric plant
Chaglla to China Three Gorges Corporation for $1.4 billion.
Still, some of the group’s businesses have been forced to restructure debts as
their revenues dwindled.
Odebrecht’s construction unit OEC is in talks to restructure $3 billion of debt
with bondholders. The company proposed a 70% haircut, which was rejected by its
creditors.
After a failed attempt to negotiate an out-of-court solution with its creditors,
ethanol unit Atvos filed for bankruptcy protection in May.
Odebrecht had been negotiating a sale of Braskem to LyondellBasell Industries NV
for a year and a half, but talks ended with no deal earlier this month.
The conglomerate’s largest creditors are Brazilian state-owned lenders Banco do
Brasil SA, Caixa Economica Federal and BNDES, as well as private-sector lenders
Banco Bradesco SA, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, Banco Santander Brasil SA and an
investment fund, totaling 33 billion reais in debt.
The group is being advised by financial restructuring firm RK Partners and law
firm E. Munhoz Advogados.