A Rio de Janeiro judge decided yesterday that a shareholders meeting called by a major equity holder in debt-laden Brazilian telecoms carrier Oi SA will have no legal effect on the company’s in-court restructuring, Reuters reported. Responding to various petitions from Oi shareholders, Judge Ricardo Lafayette Campos also upheld a plan approved by bondholders in December and courts in January to take the company out of bankruptcy protection. In December, after a dramatic and fractious 18-month battle, bondholders in Oi — Brazil’s largest fixed-line carrier — approved the plan to take the carrier out of bankruptcy protection and inject billions of dollars of fresh capital into the carrier. During the proceedings, the judge overseeing the case removed the company’s board from the process, and creditors eventually approved a plan with a significant equity dilution.
