Brazil

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.

Eike Batista’s OSX Brasil SA has filed a new request for bankruptcy protection in a Brazilian court, it said in a filing Sunday, Bloomberg News reported. The shipbuilding company, which previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013, has more than 7.9 billion reais ($1.6 billion) in debt, according to the filing. Brazilian banks Caixa Economica Federal and Banco Santander Brasil SA are among its creditors, the filing said. A new judicial recovery process is necessary “in order to prevent irreversible damage” to the company, it said in the filing.

The former CEO of Brazilian retail giant Americanas SA was mostly invisible to the public. He avoided press interviews, was distant from investors and analysts — and very few public photos of him even exist, Bloomberg News reported. Now, Miguel Gutierrez is infamous. In the year since a 25 billion reais ($5 billion) accounting fraud scandal erupted at his former company and tarnished the reputation of its billionaire shareholders, the Rio de Janeiro native has relocated to Spain while Brazilian investigators continue their probe.

Brazil should end 2024 with a primary deficit of 55.3 billion reais ($11.2 billion), the federal audit court (TCU) said, in the latest sign of skepticism that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government can meet its pledge to eliminate the fiscal deficit, Reuters reported. After Lula upped spending on social measures in his first full year in office, the market is worried his administration won't meet its fiscal goals. Despite falling interest rates, long-term future interest rates remain high, underlining market discomfort with the government's fiscal situation.

Bonds of Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA slumped further into distressed territory as investors question whether the Brazilian airline will be able to strike a deal with creditors, Bloomberg News reported. Dollar notes maturing in 2026 were down nearly 11 cents on the dollar to around 24 cents on Tuesday, according to Trace data, pushing the yield to 88%. It was the biggest decline in the US junk bond market Tuesday. The rout comes after local newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported on Sunday the company is mulling filing for chapter 11 within a month.

Brazil's government submitted a bill to Congress on Wednesday that would modernize bankruptcy regulations, aiming to speed up proceedings by giving creditors more control over the process, Reuters reported. According to finance ministry official Marcos Pinto, Brazil's current regulations date to the 1980s, and the average bankruptcy process in the country lasts more than 11 years. With the changes, the government expects to cut that length in half while increasing recovery levels and reducing the cost of credit, Pinto added in a press release.

The parent company of Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA and Colombia’s Avianca is meeting creditors to kickstart negotiations in a bid to fix its balance sheet, Bloomberg News reported. Abra Group Ltd will host talks with representatives of its $1.5 billion bondholders in New York on Wednesday, the first step toward striking a comprehensive restructuring deal for the troubled low-cost airline group. Abra’s bondholders are working with financial adviser Houlihan Lokey Inc. and law firm Dechert LLP, while Abra hired Rothschild & Co., they said.

Brazil’s development bank is considering granting loans to the country’s airlines as part of a government plan aimed at alleviating financial pressures at Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Azul SA and other carriers that have caused sharp increases in fares, Bloomberg News reported. BNDES, as the bank is known, is looking for options to help the airlines come up with sufficient collateral, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.