The holding company of Odebrecht declared bankruptcy | Research re …

The Brazilian holding company Odebrecht declared bankruptcy. The measure is intended to facilitate the restructuring of a debt of $ 13,200 million. The company intends to prevent its major creditors, banks and investment funds from executing collateral for outstanding loans, and thereby retain control of various valuable badets of the group. Since 2014, the company and its leaders have been at the center of the main investigation into corruption in Brazil. The consequences of the scandal have reached Argentina, Peru and Colombia. In the country, the company was among those responsible for the burial of the Sarmiento railway, which has not yet been completed.

In a statement, the firm said the "bankruptcy protection" agreed with São Paulo's judicial system was the way forward in the arduous and costly process of restructuring its debts. Creditors seek to seize and execute badets pledged as collateral for defaulted loans.

The main creditors of the conglomerate are the state entities Banco do Brasil, Caixa Económica Federal and the BNDES. The list also includes three private banks, Banco Bradesco SA, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA and Banco Santander Brasil SA.

The restructuring process does not include liabilities related to some of the main holding companies, such as the petrochemical company Braskem, which the Brazilians have tried in vain to sell in recent months. The subsidiary dedicated to the production of ethanol Atvos, the construction unit Odebrecht Engenharia e Construcao (OEC), the oil company Ocyan and the shipping company Enseada. The company announced that it would seek to restructure about 50% of its total debt: R $ 51 billion out of a total liability of R $ 98.5 billion.

The former CEO of the company, Marcelo Odebrecht, was arrested in 2015. Sentenced to 19 years in prison for bribery, the businessman is currently serving his sentence under house arrest.