Brazil's OAS sells Invepar stake to Brookfield, source says

SAO PAULO, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Brazil's OAS Investimentos SA,
whose parent company is under creditor protection, agreed to
sell a 24.4 percent stake in infrastructure firm Invepar to
Brookfield Asset Management Inc BAMa.TO , a source with direct
knowledge of the situation said on Tuesday, in a key step aimed
at staving off bankruptcy.
Creditors of parent company Grupo OAS approved the sale of
the Invepar stake under the condition that Brookfield dropped a
plan to extend OAS a debtor-in-possession loan worth 800 million
reais ($210 million), said the source, who requested anonymity
since the deal remains underway.
The source did not disclose the size of the sale. The
Canadian firm will instead give OAS a so-called exit loan worth
600 million reais ($158 million) that will be repaid with
proceeds from the Invepar stake sale, the source added.
According to Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, which did not say
how it obtained the information, Brookfield paid 1.35 billion
reais for the stake in Invepar, formally known as Investimentos
e Participações em Infraestrutura SA. OAS Investimentos hoped to
fetch around 2 billion reais for the asset, executives told
Reuters in August.
The bankruptcy court and antitrust authorities must still
approve the transaction. OAS Investimentos as well as three
Brazilian pension funds were joint partners in Invepar, which
has the right to operate São Paulo's Guarulhos International
Airport.
Brookfield had secured the right to top any bid from rival
parties interested in OAS's Invepar stake, namely local buyout
firm GP Investments Ltd GPIV33.SA and France's Vinci SA
SGEF.PA , sources told Reuters in June. Efforts to obtain a
comment from Brookfield were unsuccessful.
In March, Grupo OAS OAEP.UL 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 PETR4.SA and other state firms that undercut
access to financing.
An economic downturn and a slumping currency also took a
toll on Grupo OAS.