SAO PAULO Dec 18 Creditors of Grupo OAS , the Brazilian engineering firm under creditor protection, agreed to sell a 24.4 percent stake in infrastructure company Invepar to Brookfield Asset Management Inc for at least 1.35 billion reais ($346 million), a source with knowledge of the matter said.
At a meeting that ended early Friday, creditors passed a restructuring plan calling for bondholders and banks to get 20 percent of their debt repaid in almost 20 years, the source said. Creditors also approved the sale of Grupo OAS's interests in a waste management solutions firm and an oil and gas rig building unit, the source added.
The creditors agreed to sell the Invepar stake if Brookfield drops a plan to extend OAS a debtor-in-possession loan worth 800 million reais, said the source, who requested anonymity because the transaction remains private.
Reuters on Nov. 10 reported the Invepar sale as part of OAS's efforts to emerge from bankruptcy. OAS Investimentos, the unit that managed the Invepar stake for OAS, hoped to fetch at least 2.2 billion reais for the asset, Reuters reported in August.
Under the restructuring plan, OAS was authorized by creditors to keep 350 million reais from the Invepar stake sale to finance operations, the source said.
The sale will take place at an auction next month, and Brookfield secured the right to top any bid from rival parties interested in the Invepar stake, the source added. The bankruptcy plan, as well as the Invepar sale, requires approval from bankruptcy court and three major pension funds that are OAS's partners in Invepar.
Invepar is formally known as Investimentos e Participações em Infraestrutura SA.
In March, Grupo OAS filed for bankruptcy protection in a São Paulo court to facilitate the restructuring of 8 billion reais in debt owed by nine units. The bankruptcy petition came after Grupo OAS struggled with the impact of a corruption probe at state-controlled oil producer Petróleo Brasileiro SA and other state companies that undercut access to financing.
($1 = 3.8990 Brazilian reais) (Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Tatiana Bautzer; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
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