Sao Paulo (Bloomberg) — The Brazilian government delayed Laep Investments Ltd.'s initial stock offering for 15 days, saying the private equity fund's controlling shareholder broke rules prohibiting comments before the sale of securities.

The Rio de Janeiro Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that Marcus Elias made "inconvenient comments" to the press about Parmalat SpA's Brazilian unit, one of Laep's holdings. Laep, based in Bermuda, bought the business in May 2006 during an in-court restructuring after pledging to pay the company's $50 million debt to banks.

Laep on August 28 filed to sell depositary receipts in Brazil within the next month. Banco UBS Pactual SA, the Latin American investment-banking unit of UBS AG, is handling the transaction.