The governments of Canada and the US are “concerned” and “closely following” events in Uruguay’s flag air carrier Pluna since banks and an investment fund from the two countries are heavily involved in the running of the money-loosing company is spite of repeated financial support from the Uruguayan government.
Spain energy Group Repsol regained rights on a 6% warranty-stake in the Argentine oil and gas giant YPF after the Petersen Group, which used to own 25.46% of the company, lost it as the result of not having met payments for the loan through which they initially enter the business without paying a single cent.
Defence Minister Celso Amorim said on Wednesday Brazil’s growing need to protect its borders, the Amazon rainforest, and massive offshore oil discoveries would lead it to gradually increase defence spending by a quarter to reach roughly 2% of the country’s GDP.
Spanish company Repsol has said it is pulling out of Cuba after failing in a recent attempt to find oil off the island. Chairman Antonio Brufau told journalists and investors that Repsol won't do another well in Cuba.
British natural gas firm BG Group Plc said on Tuesday it had signed a definitive binding agreement to sell its entire 60.1% stake in Comgas to Brazilian energy company Cosan S.A. for 3.4 billion Brazilian Reais, which is about $1.7 billion at current exchange rates.
Brazilian sugar and ethanol producer Cosan and the country's largest rice producer, Camil Alimentos, reached an agreement to merge their food divisions, Cosan said in a statement this week.
Brazilian petrochemical conglomerate Ultrapar Paticipacoes SA announced it had purchased Uruguay’s American Chemical for 79 million dollars. Ultrapar is also linked to businesses in fuels and liquids storage, according to a Brazilian securities filing on Monday.
British drinks group Diageo is buying a maker of Brazil's most popular spirit, cachaça for about 470 million dollars, boosting its expansion in fast-growing emerging markets while it fights for a bigger prize in tequila.
Argentina explained that the YPF seizure was carried out in order to avoid an energy crisis in an article which was published in the US edition of The Financial Times newspaper and signed by Ambassador Jorge Argüello.
Spain’s Repsol, recovering from the recent seizure of YPF by the Argentine government, said an area off the coast of Brazil it is exploring with partner China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. contains the equivalent of at least 1.25 billion barrels of oil.