Odebrecht creditors approve restructuring of 12 subsidiaries
Creditors of the Brazilian group Odebrecht have approved the judicial recovery plan of 12 of its 20 subsidiaries to restructure its million-dollar debt, the conglomerate announced Thursday.
In a statement, Odebrecht said that after ten months of negotiations and after several hours of virtual meeting, creditors gave the green light to the restructuring plan, a step "decisive for the economic-financial recovery" of the group.
"We are convinced that eight other companies will have their (recovery) plans approved in up to sixty days," said Ruy Sampaio, the group's president and who signed the statement. Creditors had rejected the conglomerate's initial proposal to include the 20 subsidiaries. in a single restructuring plan.
For the executive, the approval of the judicial recovery plan represents "an important demonstration of confidence in the recovery of Odebrecht."
After the judicial approval of the creditors' decision, the group will have a legal term of two years for the execution of the restructuring plan of the companies that accepted.
The approval, pondered Sampaio, will allow "to overcome in the first place the current challenges of the economic and public health crisis - due to the coronavirus - and, at the same time, to consider business opportunities where our business and entrepreneurial experience has a place."
Odebrecht has faced a serious economic crisis since the Brazilian authorities uncovered five years ago a vast corrupt plot at the state oil company Petrobras, which has sent dozens of businessmen and politicians to prison, and has also served to uncover similar networks in other countries of Latin America.
The group recognized corruption within their companies, signed agreements with authorities in various countries and promised to pay millions of fines in exchange for continuing to operate, but the judicial siege destabilized the accounts of the construction empire.
