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Strategies & Market Trends : Telebras (TBH) & Brazil -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (9137)	10/23/1998 5:01:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 22640

Brazil's BNDES Says Cos Seek Record $24B In Credit YTD Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK -- Companies operating in Brazil have sought a record $24 billion in loans from development bank BNDES so far this year, a bank official told Dow Jones Friday. The figure already exceeds BNDES' disbursement budget of $17 billion for 1998, according to Federico Kautz, privatization manager at BNDES. "Applications are increasing very much in the infrastructure sector, particularly in power projects," Kautz said during a telephone interview. Kautz said that BNDES disbursements have been growing at a speedy pace, from $3.2 billion lent in 1993, to current levels, fed by a privatization process that has created a number of huge new private corporations. "We don't lend to state-owned companies," Kautz said. "But now there are a lot more private companies." Brazil privatized several billion dollars' worth of distribution assets in the past couple of years, and recently started the sale of generation companies. Furthermore, several greenfield projects have emerged to bring power and natural gas from neighboring countries. "Almost 80% of disbursements in infrastucture go for power projects, particularly thermoelectric and also hydroelectric," Kautz added. The funds-hungry power sector leaves little to telecommunications companies, be it the newly privatized spinoffs of Telecomunicacoes Brasileiras SA (TBR), or upstarts in the cellular sector. Also vying for BNDES funds earmarked for infrastructure are telecom equipment manufacturers who are betting on the sector's expansion in the wake of the Telebras privatization. Kautz said that companies operating in Brazil which have applied for BNDES funds include Motorola Inc. (MOT), Ericsson SPA (I.ERC) Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU), Canada's Nortel, controlled by Bell Canada Interantional (BCICIF), and Finland's Nokia (NOKA). However, the process can be lengthy. The official said that after an initial application, if approved, companies must submit a second, more detailed and technical application which if approved, goes before a credit committee for final authorization and disbursement. -By Margarita Palatnik; 201-938-2226; margarita.palatnik@cor.dowjones.com

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (9137)	10/23/1998 5:03:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 22640

IDB Board To Meet Nov. 12 On $9B Credit For Latin America Dow Jones Newswires WASHINGTON -- The deputy controller of the Inter-American Development Bank's said Friday that the agency's board of governors will meet in Washington on Nov. 12 to consider a $9 billion line of credit to help Latin American and Caribbean countries deal with the global financial crisis. IADB Deputy Controller Carlos Guedes said the agency's executive directors have also approved a separate $2 billion line of credit to assist Latin American governments with their efforts to correct the so-called Y2K computer problem. Guedes said that many Latin American countries have been slow off the mark in ridding government computer systems of software that allocated only two digits of memory to represent years. That programing shortcut was commonly employed in older computers to save on once-expensive system memory. After the turn of the next century, computers which haven't had been cleansed of their Y2K problems won't be able to distinguish the current date from the same day a century earlier. Guedes said some countries might not be able to avail themselves of the entire amount of money available under the two programs since drawdowns on one line of credit could cause them to exceed their individual debt ceilings.

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (9137)	10/23/1998 5:15:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 22640

Ibope confirms Covas has surpassed Maluf in SP - Ibope Institute released yesterday another opinion poll indicating that licensed governor Mário Covas, of the ruling party PSDB, has surpassed PPB candidate, Paulo Maluf, in the run-off dispute for São Paulo state governorship. Covas has 45% of intended votes, while Maluf has 42%. The poll so-called "error margin" is 2.2 percentage points. The interviews were conducted on Wednesday and yesterday. In the previous survey, in October 8 through 12, Maluf had 45% of the intended votes, while Covas had 38%. When Maluf was informed about the result, he said he was not sad "because polls do not change the vote". Tonight, Maluf and Covas will face each other in another debate to be broadcast by Globo TV network at 9:25 p.m. (local time). (O Estado de S. Paulo/ Jornal da Tarde/ Folha de S.Paulo/ Gazeta Mercantil/ Jornal do Brasil/ O Globo) Entrepreneurs reject income tax on projected profit - Entrepreneurs criticized yesterday the federal government's proposal to calculate the corporate income tax (IRPJ) on the projected profit rather than on the real profit. "The proposal gives an idea that all entrepreneurs are dishonest," São Paulo Federation of Industries (Fiesp) vice president, Roberto Nicolau Jeha, affirmed. Marcelo Jordão, director partner to Arthur Andersen, said that the measure would demand changes in the Constitution because the current legislation states that the income tax could only be calculated on real profit. (O Estado de S. Paulo/ Jornal da Tarde) BB postpones privatization of BBDTVM - Banco do Brasil has postponed to next year the privatization of its securities distributor, BBDTVM. The bank alleges that the current financial crisis has made market conditions unfavorable for the sale. According to the note released by BB, the privatization process has not been suspended. Sources at the bank said that the postponement was suggested by companies hired to carry out BBDTVM sale process. (O Estado de S. Paulo/ Jornal da Tarde) Gov't studies alterations in job insurance - The Labor Ministry is considering changing job insurance rules so as the release of the benefit relates to the unemployed worker's qualification. The Employment ministry and Salary Policy secretary, Jorge Jatobá, believes that the alteration should facilitate the worker's way back to the job market. "We have to detect if a worker's qualification is obsolete and give him a new opportunity of professional recycling," he said. (O Estado de S. Paulo/ Folha de S.Paulo) Lula wants to consolidate opposition to Cardoso - The defeated candidate for Presidency left-wing leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), declared yesterday that his priority after the elections is to consolidate the opposition front against President Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration. "I am going into an electoral recess so as to begin an opposition campaign against Fernando Henrique later on," Lula said. (O Estado de S. Paulo/ Jornal da Tarde/ Jornal do Brasil) (By Sergio Caldas) agestado.com

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (9137)	10/23/1998 5:20:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Respond to of 22640

Current transactions deficit rise to 4.03% of GDP Brasília, 23 - Brazil posted a current transactions deficit equivalent to 4.03% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the year to September. The figure released today by the Central Bank's Economic Department (Depec) is higher than that registered in the year to August, when it stood at 3.65% of GDP and also above the figure reached in the year to September of 3.75% of GDP. According to Depec, the deficit leaped to 4.37% in the 12-month period ended in September, from 4.08% in the corresponding period ended in August. Depec's head, Altamir Lopes, informed the 1998 deficit outlook is yet to be revised and warned that he could not guarantee that the resulting figure would stand below 4% of GDP. He added the revision became necessary after an unexpected flight of resources due to the international financial crisis caught the government unawares. Brazil closed out September with reserves totaling US$45.811bn under the liquidity concept, after having lost US$21.5bn see related story. ======================== BC: Reserves reach US$45.8bn in Sept. Brasília, 23 - International reserves fell US$21.5bn in September to finish the month at US$45.811bn under the international liquidity concept. The data was released today by the Central Bank's Economic Department (Depec). Under the cash concept, reserves ended at US$44.986bn. According to Depec, the reduction was due to the selling of US$12.8bn in the free dollar market, and another US$9.2bn in the floating dollar market. Before the beginning of the international financial turmoil last August, the country's international reserves were at a comfortable US$70bn. (By Gustavo Freire) ================================ Gov't forecasts zero growth in 1999 Brasília, 23 - Federal Budget secretary, Waldemar Giomi, said today that the draft budget law to be sent to Congress probably on November 3, forecasts a zero growth outlook for the Brazilian economy in 1999. He also said that investment cuts should reach 60%, adding that R$8.7bn out of every R$15bn, will have to be cut. (Nélia Marquez) ========================== Financial aid agreement soon to be announced, Larsen says São Paulo, 23 - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Brazil are moving closer toward an agreement on a financial assistance program, deputy director of the IMF's research department, Flemming Larsen, told journalists during a presentation in Tokyo, Dow Jones reported. For Larsen, Brazil has faced problems stemming from capital flight, see related story, leading to a deterioration in its current account balance that probably is unsustainable. However, he noted that he will not "be surprised if an agreement is announced relatively soon". (By Paulo R. Monteiro Dias)

To: Steve Fancy who wrote (9137)	10/23/1998 5:21:00 PM
From: Steve Fancy	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 22640

Elections: 64.7m people are expected to vote next Sunday São Paulo, 23 - Next Sunday 64.7 million people are expected to show up for the second-round of the gubernatorial elections' voting, when the government of 12 states as well as the Federal District, Brasília, will be at stake. The figure represents 61% out of the total 106 million of Brazilian constituents. The voting is expected to be totally electronic in Brasília and other states such as Rio de Janeiro, Roraima and Amapá. However, the remaining 21.7 million people are still expected to vote manually. The electronic result is expected to be made available by Monday (26) at noon, the Superior Electoral Court's computing secretary, Paulo César Camarão, informed. The manual result, on the other hand, should no be available before late Wednesday (28), when governors from all Brazilian states should already be known. (By Nelson Breve and José Ramos)