The creditors of OSX Brasil SA, Eike's Batista's shipbuilding company, had engaged the services of Bingham McCutchen LLP to prepare for a possible restructuring of USD500 million worth of bonds. This was confirmed by two individuals that were briefed on the arrangement who requested anonymity as talks are still private.
The Boston based law firm had approached prospective financial advisers on behalf of a group of creditors who represent bondholders of OSX dollar denominated notes due on 2015. The group of creditors represent more than half of all OSX bondholders according to one of the sources.
Many investors have declined or have kept away from the commodities startups initiated by Batista after a number of missed financial and operational targets were missed or unmet. Batista, for his part, had created OSX in order to supply vessels for its sister company OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA. Just last month, the firm had engaged the services of Rothschild to seek advice on possible restructuring moves after projects were cancelled and warned that its single remaining oilfield may stop production by next year.
The bonds from OSX are backed by a contract to lease an oil platform to OGX. The value of the said bonds fell to just USD0.83 on the dollar, This pushed the yield to 24.8% from USD0.10353 by the end of 2012.
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