Justice accepts Odebrecht’s request to restructure its million-dollar debt

Ecuadornews:

The conglomerate stressed in a statement that the request for judicial recovery became the “most appropriate measure” to enable the “successful conclusion” of its financial restructuring process.

The Brazilian Justice accepted the request for judicial recovery requested by the Odebrecht conglomerate, in order to restructure its millionaire debt after being involved in a corruption scandal of international dimensions, the company reported Tuesday.

Odebrecht, one of the most powerful firms in Latin America, entered on Monday with one of the largest requests for judicial recovery in the history of Brazil and justice granted a period of 60 days to submit a plan to creditors, which must be approved in assembly.

Since the authorities uncovered the plot in the framework of the Lava Jato operation, five years ago, Odebrecht has suffered several setbacks, both financial and judicial, which have placed it on the verge of bankruptcy, with a debt close to 100,000 million. of reals (about 25,700 million dollars).

The conglomerate stressed in a statement that the request for judicial recovery became the “most appropriate measure” to enable the “successful conclusion” of its financial restructuring process before the “expiration of various debts, the occurrence of unpredictable events and the recent attacks on the assets of companies. “

Odebrecht has 84,000 million reais (about 21,595 million dollars) in competitive loans, but of that total 33,000 million reals (8,483 million dollars) are between companies of the same group, according to the consortium.

Therefore, the company must restructure liabilities for 51,000 million reais (about 13,076 million dollars).

The request reaches 21 ODB holding companies, but the group left the petrochemical company Braskem, Odebrecht Ingeniería y Construcción and Ocyan, considered as “essential assets” for the survival of the group, outside the recovery perimeter.

Odebrecht touched the bottom of the well after the arduous road started five years ago, when the gigantic corruption scandal of which it was the protagonist was uncovered and that has splashed to the highest spheres of Latin American politics, including several presidents and former presidents.

The investigations led to the imprisonment in 2015 of the then president of the Odebrecht group, Marcelo Odebrecht, who became one of the most powerful businessmen in the country and headed for years the group of companies founded in 1944 by his grandfather Norberto Odebrecht.

Lava Jato discovered that the group’s builder had a specific department for the payment of bribes, with tables and nicknames to hide the identity of the beneficiaries, a complex puzzle that the authorities gathered thanks to the confession of 77 of their exejecutivos.

Given the magnitude of the scandal, the consortium acknowledged the corruption within their companies, signed agreements with authorities in various countries and promised to pay millions in fines in exchange for continuing to operate, but the judicial siege destabilized the accounts of the empire.

Before the scandal, Odebrecht had 181,000 employees distributed in 21 countries, while now it only has 48,000, according to the holding company after recalling the bankruptcy law.

The drastic reduction in the workforce, according to the group, is the result of “an economic crisis that has frustrated many of ODB’s investment plans, the impact on reputation due to mistakes made and the difficulties that companies that collaborate with Justice to receive new credits and have their services contracted “ (I)

Source: https://www.expreso.ec/mundo/odebrecht-fiscalia-brasil-reestructuracion-deuda-millones-YK2914742