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The people in charge of diamond distributor Exelco NV’s bankruptcy case have put the company under chapter 15 protection in hopes of putting Belgian administrators in control after the company allegedly lost diamonds valued at $15 million, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Two trustees appointed by a Belgian court earlier this year filed court papers on Friday stating the company is now under chapter 15 protection, more than a month after Exelco’s voluntary chapter 11 filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. This summer, Exelco found itself in a nasty litigation battle with creditor KBC Bank NV, after KBC had seized all of Exelco’s assets in its Antwerp headquarters — some of which belonged to international diamond corporation De Beers and Dutch bank ABN Amro Group NV — in an attempt to foreclose on its loans. KBC sought to have Exelco’s assets liquidated, to which Exelco responded by seeking insolvency protection in Belgium. Read more. 

Cover all aspects of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency as well as chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code with ABI’s Chapter 15 for Foreign Debtors. 

Croatia’s richest businessman was arrested on Tuesday in Britain amid allegations he embezzled millions from his large retail company, leading it into a massive bankruptcy that is now an issue of national concern in Croatia and the Balkans, the Associated Press reported. Ivica Todoric, the founder of Croatia’s biggest private food and retail company, Agrokor, appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court, where his lawyer said he will fight extradition to Croatia. District Judge Richard Blake granted Todoric freedom on 100,000 pounds ($132,000) bail.

Creditors of bankrupt Takata Corp say that the parts maker owes them more than $30 billion after the automotive industry’s biggest recall over its faulty air bags — many times more than the company can repay, Reuters reported yesterday. In the biggest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer, Takata sought court protection from creditors in June as costs and liabilities mounted from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits. Its air bag inflators have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries around the world because they can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles. Takata’s creditors, including automakers such as Honda Motor Co., banks and bondholders, are seeking 3.77 trillion yen ($33.3 billion) from the supplier, mostly to cover recall costs, according to the filing outlining the company’s debt obligations, which hasn’t been made public. Takata had cash and securities worth just 78 billion yen at end-March - equivalent to just 2 percent of the sum creditors are seeking. It also had tangible assets such as buildings and machinery worth 93 billion yen, but much of these went to the company’s purchaser and the rest is needed to make replacement inflators to supply the recalls.

Brazilian telephone carrier Oi SA revealed its latest restructuring proposal yesterday, which included a provision requiring the company to pay bondholders significant annual fees in exchange for injecting capital into the debt-laden carrier, Reuters reported. Oi, in a securities filing, said its plan would involve a minimum capital increase of 7.1 billion reais ($2.16 billion), of which 3.5 billion would come from a cash injection and 3.6 billion from a debt-for-equity swap. Bondholders that inject capital into the company would receive an upfront fee of 6 percent on their contribution plus annual fees of 8 percent.

Brazil’s Odebrecht Oil & Gas filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Friday to help implement a previously announced multibillion-dollar debt restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Odebrecht Oil & Gas, an arm of engineering conglomerate Odebrecht SA, sought chapter 15 protection, the section of the bankruptcy code that deals with international insolvencies, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. In May, Odebrecht’s oil and gas arm entered into an agreement with a group of creditors to restructure its financial debt. The reorganization plan, which covers $5 billion in debt, was filed with a court in Rio de Janeiro. Creditors representing more than 60% of the claims accepted the plan, the company said in a statement in May. Odebrecht is one of a number of conglomerates snared in a large corruption scandal involving state-controlled oil company Petróleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras. Odebrecht signed a multibillion anticorruption settlement with Brazilian, U.S. and Swiss prosecutors in December following a two-year investigation of bribery of public officials that has sent politicians and executives from Petrobras and several construction companies to prison. The closely held construction firm admitted to violating foreign bribery laws.

Venezuela’s president yesterday said that the cash-strapped South American country will seek to restructure its debt, raising the prospect of a showdown with bondholders that could be complicated by U.S. sanctions on key members of the Venezuelan administration, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a televised address yesterday, President Nicolás Maduro announced plans to make a $1.1 billion principal payment today for a bond issued by state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. that was due Nov. 2. He added that following Friday’s payment, he would seek a voluntary restructuring of the country’s remaining debt. Estimates of Venezuela’s total outstanding debt vary, with some analysts putting the figure between $100 billion and $150 billion. The development follows years of increasingly restricted financing options for Venezuela. In August, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting U.S. institutions from trading new bonds that would serve to help finance Maduro’s government, a move aimed at punishing the regime for what the Trump administration called human-rights abuses and state-led corruption. The sanctions also could make a debt restructuring difficult or even impossible, according to some sovereign debt restructuring attorneys, because they restrict bondholders’ dealings with Venezuelan officials. Venezuela has many and varied creditors who are likely to scramble for limited assets in complicated legal battles in the event of a restructuring or default, some of the attorneys said.