By Guillermo Parra-Bernal

SAO PAULO, April 20 (Reuters) – Shareholders in Sete Brasil Participações SA voted on Wednesday to permit the ailing rig lessor to hunt chapter safety after efforts to safe a long-term contract with state-controlled oil producer Petróleo Brasileiro SA failed.

Petrobras, as Sete Brasil’s sole shopper is understood, confirmed the choice by way of a spokesperson. A supply acquainted with the choice advised Reuters that companions holding greater than 90 % of Sete Brasil accepted the plan, with out detailing a timetable or a method to take action.

The approval of the creditor safety plan was potential after pension fund Petros, which has 18 % of Sete Brasil, agreed to again the plan after opposing it for months, stated the supply, who requested anonymity to talk freely in regards to the subject. Support from a minimal 85 % of Sete Brasil’s 12 companions have been essential to cross the plan.

The destiny of Sete Brasil, which was created in 2008 to handle the world’s greatest deepwater drilling fleet, hinged on Petrobras’ willingness to signal a long-term lease contract. Sete Brasil’s pursuit of an in-court reorganization might pressure Petrobras to compensate shareholders, collectors and suppliers of the rig lessor for refusing to signal the contract, legal professionals have stated.

A collapse of Sete Brasil can be devastating not just for the traders that backed the mission, however for dozens of shipbuilders supplying the corporate. More than 800,000 native shipbuilding jobs might be misplaced, triggering 40 billion reais ($11.3 billion) in losses, trade estimates present.

The poll provides administration of Rio de Janeiro-based Sete Brasil energy to determine when and the place to file for court docket safety, which shareholders within the rig lessor noticed as the one approach to press Petrobras into signing a good contract. Sete Brasil declined to remark.

Petrobras Chief Executive Officer Aldemir Bendine and officers on the firm’s exploration and manufacturing division stay at loggerheads over the contract, with the latter looking for a collapse of the rig leaser, the supply added.

($1 = 3.5277 Brazilian reais) (Additional reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Marcelo Teixeira and Aluísio Alves in São Paulo; modifying by Andrew Hay)

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