Billionaire Louis-Dreyfus Finds a Costly Escape From Debt Drama

Margarita Louis-Dreyfus suddenly became a key shareholder in one of the biggest commodity traders in 2009. She then spent most of the next decade locked in battles with her late husband’s family, fights that left her in sole control of Louis Dreyfus Co. but desperate for cash to repay the debt she accrued along the way.

On Wednesday, Louis-Dreyfus, 58, announced a way out of the squeeze, with a deal to sell 45% of the eponymous trader to an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund that should raise enough money to cover her debts. By keeping control, the Russian-born heiress can still make good on goals she outlined in a 2012 interview: continuing husband Robert Louis-Dreyfus’s work and keeping the company named after the family.