Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Batista's OGX misses $45 million interest payment

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UPDATE 1-Batista's OGX misses $45 million interest payment Oct 1st 2013, 13:50 Tue Oct 1, 2013 9:50am EDT (Adds background on OGX troubles, share movement) SAO PAULO Oct 1 (Reuters) - OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações SA missed a $45 million bond interest payment due on Tuesday, moving the debt-laden Brazilian oil producer closer to what could be the largest-ever Latin American corporate debt default. The company, controlled by embattled Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, failed to deposit the money in bondholder accounts and plans not to do so during a 30-day grace period it has to remain current on its debt, the company said in a filing. The payment on Tuesday was on $1.1 billion in bonds due in 2022. OGX faces a coupon payment of approximately $100 million in December on debt due in 2018. The missed payment also nudges the company closer to an expected bankruptcy protection filing, which analysts and sources with direct knowledge of the situation say could come later this month. Shares of OGX have lost 95 percent of their value this year, and traded on Tuesday at a record-low 0.20 reais, down 4.8 percent. Batista, who a year ago was Brazil's richest man and the world's seventh wealthiest with a fortune close to $35 billion, is dismantling his EBX energy, logistics and mining conglomerate because of a dearth of cash, surging debt and a plunge in investor confidence. OGX, which exercised an option that obliges Batista to inject $1 billion into the company, is trying to get Malaysia's state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd to begin payments on its $850 million purchase of a 40 percent stake in an OGX field before the Brazilian company's debt restructuring is finalized. OGX has hired Blackstone Group LP and investment banking firm Lazard Ltd to "review its capital structure." A group of bondholders, preparing for contentious negotiations, hired financial advisory firm Rothschild to advise them on a potential debt restructuring. Pacific Investment Management Co (Pimco), the investment firm that operates the world's largest bond fund, and BlackRock Inc, the world's biggest money manager, are part of the bondholder group. Combined, that group owns more than one-half of OGX's $3.6 billion in outstanding bonds. (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Asher Levine; Editing by Todd Benson and Jeffrey Benkoe) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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