Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel rejected the company's request to swap billions of reais in regulatory fines for new investments.
Anatel said in a statement that the "unsatisfactory" progress of Oi's reorganization, now in its 16th month, raised doubts about the company's ability to honor investment commitments resulting from a fine-for-investment swap.Later on Monday, the president of Brazilian national development bank BNDES, Paulo Rabello de Castro, said Oi's restructuring plan was insufficient. The company owes BNDES 3.3 billion reais ($1 billion)."I cannot even assess what has been presented. Only in Brazil can this (Oi's proposal) be called a plan. I don't think we have a plan," Rabello de Castro said at a pulp and paper industry event in Sao Paulo.He said the bank was prepared to take a "rational economic" stance to help Oi recover from bankruptcy, but gave no details.The judge overseeing the phone carrier's bankruptcy protection case agreed again to postpone a creditors' assembly that was originally scheduled for Monday until Nov. 10, the company said in a securities filing.The judge had already postponed the meeting until Nov. 6.In a second securities filing, Oi informed shareholders it was in talks with individual creditors who are not members of the steering committees of international bondholders on a potential restructuring by means of a capital increase.At an Oct. 19, meeting no agreement was reached, Oi said, adding that negotiations may continue in the future but there was no assurance that they will result in a deal.The proposal discussed was aimed at seeking approval for a cash capital increase of more than 3.5 billion reais, the filing issued by Chief Financial Officer Carlos Augusto Brandão said. (Reporting by Leonardo Goy; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lisa Shumaker)