Bankrupt Brazilian airline Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA accused its rival Latam Airlines Group SA of taking advantage of its recent financial trouble by trying to poach its pilots and Boeing aircraft, Bloomberg News reported. The Sao Paulo-based airline said in court papers filed Thursday that Latam recently sent a letter to Gol’s business partners inquiring about leasing Boeing aircraft and solicited Brazilian pilots experienced in flying such aircraft in an Internet job posting.

Unigel Participacoes SA is preparing to file for bankruptcy protection in Brazil after talks with creditors stalled, Bloomberg News reported. The chemical producer was granted a 60-day protection from creditors by a court on Dec. 14, but a mediation process didn’t result in an agreement. Local bondholders declared the early maturity of some notes last year, triggering an acceleration of the troubled fertilizer maker’s debt and prompting the company to seek protection in court.

Outstanding loans in Brazil grew by 7.9% in 2023, a sharp deceleration from the previous year when the expansion had been 14.5%, central bank data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The credit stock saw a 1.4% increase in December from the previous month, with the volume of financing concluding the year at 5.8 trillion reais ($1.16 trillion). The slowdown in outstanding loans last year was driven by high borrowing costs.

Brazil’s government is working on an emergency plan to help alleviate financial pressures on airlines and address the high cost of consumer litigation and a lack of competition, Bloomberg News reported. The government is proposing using public funds as collateral for loans to the carriers from the country’s development bank, known as BNDES, the person said. It is expected to be issued it as a provisional measure in the coming weeks, allowing the changes to then take effect immediately.

Brazil expects its public debt to surge by as much as 13.5% in 2024 and aims to progress in its lengthening while projecting a greater presence in the international debt market this year, said the Treasury on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Public debt is expected to range between 7 trillion reais and 7.4 trillion reais in 2024, compared with 6.520 trillion reais ($1.31 trillion) in 2023, according to the Treasury's Annual Financing Plan.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Monday allowed Brazilian airline Gol to borrow the first $350 million of its proposed bankruptcy financing, which a company attorney said was "desperately" needed to maintain normal operations, Reuters reported. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved the initial funding at a court hearing in Manhattan, despite voicing some concerns about the high cost of the overall $950 million loan. Glenn will consider approving the rest of the loan at a future hearing, and said he needs more insight into the financing costs. "I'm not writing a blank check," Judge Glenn said.

Brazilian airline Gol does not expect its chapter 11 proceedings to trigger job cuts, its chief executive said on Friday, reiterating that the carrier's operations will remain as usual while it is under bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. Gol, Brazil's second-largest airline in terms of passengers transported, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Thursday as it grapples with high debt seen at around 20 billion reais ($4.07 billion).

Brazil's inflation came in well below market expectations in its mid-January reading, statistics agency IBGE said on Friday, providing central bank policymakers with good news as they gather next week for their first interest rate decision of 2024, Reuters reported. Consumer prices in Latin America's largest economy rose 0.31% in the month to mid-January, IBGE said, down from 0.40% in the previous month and below all estimates in a Reuters poll of economists, whose median forecast was for a 0.47% increase.

Brazilian airline Gol said on Thursday it is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, with a $950 million financial commitment from its controlling shareholder Abra Group, Reuters reported. Abra also controls Colombian carrier Avianca, though the two airlines operate separately. The move makes Gol the latest Latin American carrier to seek bankruptcy protection after a pandemic-related crisis, following the path of its sister company Avianca, Mexico's Aeromexico and Chile-based LATAM Airlines.

Banco BTG Pactual SA and Farallon Capital Management are considering injecting fresh money into troubled utility Light SA, Bloomberg News reported. The firms, both of which are Light creditors, are mulling new loans for company, including convertible notes, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing internal deliberations. The loans would be contingent on Light reaching an agreement with regulators to allow it to charge higher rates for the power it sells in Rio de Janeiro.