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When Marcelo Odebrecht was transferred to prison last week after his company was charged with cheating Petrobras out of R$6.4bn ($1.9bn), he became the latest member of Brazil’s elite to be sucked into the country’s biggest-ever corruption scandal — and also one of the most unusual. The 47-year-old is president and chief executive of Odebrecht — the Brazilian... Continue Reading →
Brazilian federal police are investigating potential irregularities in a military program that aims to build a nuclear-powered submarine in partnership with France by 2023, newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Wednesday. Folha said police searched for documents that could prove their suspicions of fraud in the program. The search was part of a wider... Continue Reading →
Brazil will probably lose its investment-grade status from more than one rating agency by end-2016, according to most market participants polled by Reuters after S&P revised the country's outlook to negative on Tuesday. Twenty-three of the 28 respondents believe Standard & Poor's will downgrade Brazil's credit rating to junk status by the end of next... Continue Reading →
The real’s swings between losses and gains was the highest among major currencies as concern Brazil faces a downgrade to junk offset speculation that the central bank will increase borrowing costs by another half-percentage point. The increase in volatility this month added to the risk for investors wanting to take advantage of the highest interest... Continue Reading →
The world’s three biggest shipbuilders posted a combined 4.8 trillion won ($4.1 billion) in operating losses in the second quarter, paying the price for a failed foray into deep-sea oil rigs. Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. -- South Korea’s Big Three shipbuilders -- all reported... Continue Reading →
Of the three biggest ratings companies, S&P has taken the toughest stance on Brazil. Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have the country rated a notch higher, providing a bigger buffer from the junk-grade threshold. A downgrade by S&P would undo the progress made under former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who led the... Continue Reading →
Standard & Poor’s said it may cut Brazil’s credit rating to junk, citing the country’s political and economic challenges amid an ongoing corruption probe. The ratings company said in a statement Tuesday it revised the outlook on Brazil’s rating to negative from stable. The country’s rating from S&P is already at BBB-, the lowest investment... Continue Reading →
Brazilian federal police said on Tuesday they were completing two arrest warrants as part of a corruption investigation into Eletronuclear, a subsidiary of state-run electric utility Eletrobras. The investigation that had previously focused on graft at state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA is investigating price fixing and cartel formation at the Angra 3 nuclear reactor,... Continue Reading →
BP Plc reported second-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates after a boom in trading faded and the conflict in Libya forced almost $600 million of writedowns. Profit adjusted for one-time items and inventory changes dropped 64 percent from a year earlier to $1.3 billion, BP said Tuesday. That missed the $1.7 billion average estimate of... Continue Reading →
Santos Port has always been known as Brazil’s gateway to the world. Now, it’s also a window into what went wrong in Latin America’s biggest economy. Exports from Santos have tumbled as demand from China sags. Companies betting on a boon as massive offshore oil finds were developed are now scaling back after Petroleo Brasileiro... Continue Reading →
