Sete Brasil to seek up to $5 bln funding in reorganization plan (updated)

Banco Bradesco

12/08/2016 23:33

(Adds court filing) 
    By Guillermo Parra-Bernal 
    SAO PAULO, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Sete Brasil Participações SA 
presented a draft reorganization plan on Friday that includes 
seeking up to $5 billion in funding and downsizing business, 
three months after the Brazilian rig leaser sought court 
protection against 18 billion reais ($5.7 billion) in looming 
debt payments. 
    Rio de Janeiro-based Sete Brasil is asking creditors, which 
include some of the world's leading shipbuilders and Brazil's 
largest lenders, to endorse a plan to help build between eight 
and 12 rigs, down from an original target of 28, Chief Executive 
Officer Luiz Eduardo Carneiro said in an interview.  
    The plan was submitted to a court in Rio de Janeiro, where 
Sete Brasil's reorganization is being handled, said the firm. 
    Fundraising could vary along with the number of rigs to be 
built and delivered to state-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA, 
Sete Brasil's sole client, Carneiro said. While looking for 
clients other than Petrobras  PETR4.SA  is a possibility, Sete 
Brasil's priority is convincing the state firm to rent the rigs, 
said Eduardo Sampaio of Alvarez & Marsal Holdings LLC, Sete 
Brasil's main advisor. 
    Founded in 2008 to fill the world's biggest deep-water 
drilling fleet order, Sete Brasil had to file for bankruptcy 
protection in late April after efforts to secure a long-term 
contract with Petrobras failed. Petrobras owns 5 percent of the 
rig leaser.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N17N273 
    The $90 billion project began to fall apart in 2014 when 
Petrobras and Sete Brasil became engulfed in Brazil's worst 
corruption scandal, leading the Brazilian government - the main 
sponsor of the project - to delay promised financing and the 
signature of the long-term rig supplying contract. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N17I1MQ 
    The tussle between Petrobras and Sete Brasil's management  
and shareholders has forced the rig leaser's creditors to write 
off some of the 15 billion reais in loans they extended to Sete 
Brasil.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N1A81JM 
    Sources have told Reuters that a collapse of Sete Brasil 
would be devastating not only for the banks, pension funds and 
investment firms that backed the project, but also for dozens of 
shipbuilders and manufacturers supplying the company. 
    ($1 = 3.1793 Brazilian reais) 
 
 (Editing by Frances Kerry and Grant McCool) 
 ((guillermo.parra@thomsonreuters.com; +55-11-5644-7714; 
+55-119-8346-7153; Reuters Messaging: 
guillermo.parra.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: SETE RESTRUCTURING/