Bankrupt miner Samarco Mineracao SA plans to receive a 1.2 billion reais ($238 million) debtor-in-possession loan extended by its controlling shareholders, Vale SA and BHP Group Ltd, to maintain its activity, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. But a group representing 80% of Samarco’s debt excluding Vale and BHP oppose the move, saying the DIP financing goal would be to protect Vale and BHP assets. Among these creditors are York Global Finance, Ashmor, Solus and City National.
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Samarco Mineracao SA, a bankrupt joint venture between Brazilian miner Vale SA and BHP Group Ltd, proposed on Thursday a plan to restructure 50 billion reais ($10 billion) in debt with an offer of preferred shares or a cash payout in 2041 equal to 15% of the current value of holdings, Reuters reported. Samarco filed for bankruptcy protection in April to prevent creditors' claims from affecting operations that restarted at the end of 2020, more than five years after a tailings dam collapsed causing one of Brazil's worst environmental accidents.
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LATAM Airlines Group, the region’s largest carrier, said on Wednesday that it had sought to extend until September the deadline to present its restructuring plan as part of the bankruptcy protection process initiated in 2020, Reuters reported. LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in May of last year, hammered by the world travel crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, it was the world’s largest airline to take such action due to COVID-19.
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Brazilian metropolitan rail company Supervia filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, the company said, as traffic was sharply hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. The company, controlled by a Japanese group that includes a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co 8031.T and West Japan Railway Co 9021.T, will restructure 1.2 billion reais ($237.4 million) in debt. Before the pandemic, Supervia, which operates in Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, had around 600,000 passengers a day but now the number has dropped to 300,000.
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Latam Airlines Group SA Chief Executive Roberto Alvo, seeking to stave off an overture from rival Azul SA, said the bankrupt air carrier’s Brazilian operations aren’t for sale, Bloomberg News reported. Santiago-based Latam, which has now been in U.S. bankruptcy for more than a year, has its sights set on a strong chapter 11 exit -- not a piecemeal sale of the business, Alvo said in an interview Wednesday. The carrier’s shares briefly slumped last week after it denied reports that Azul SA planned to buy Latam’s Brazilian subsidiary.
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Authorities in Brazil are investigating senior employees at Connecticut-based trading house Freepoint Commodities for their alleged role in a bribery scheme involving state-run oil company Petrobras, Reuters has learned. Federal police here suspect Freepoint, through an intermediary, routed bribes to Petrobras employees for a roughly seven-year period ending in 2018. Reuters pieced together the purported kickback operation from three people close to the investigation, and hundreds of pages of previously unreported court documents filed by Brazilian investigators.
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Brazilian airline Azul SA has approached Chile’s bankrupt LATAM Airlines Group with the aim of buying its Brazilian operation, Reuters reported. Azul’s shares rose more than 9% in Sao Paulo on the news, while LATAM’s shares in Santiago, where the airline is listed, were down 20%. LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago and, while it has secured new liquidity in that process, it has yet to present a formal restructuring plan.
Covid-19 bankrupts a travel-industry power player. Investors dump its securities. But wait: vaccines roll out, economies reopen, and that once-doomed firm looks pretty attractive to traders once again. The tale of Latam Airlines Group SA’s Chapter 11 case is looking eerily similar to that of Hertz Global Holdings Inc. in some respects, Bloomberg News reported. Both went bankrupt as the virus raged. Both were in decent financial shape before the pandemic ground travel to a halt.
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As LATAM Airlines Group reshuffles its operations and cleans up its financial situation as a part of its chapter 11 bankruptcy process, the group’s branches continue their streamlining and cost-cutting measures. The latest agreement — and one of the most relevant with respect to labour relations so far — was announced this week at LATAM Brasil. In an internal announcement, the company announced it would be outsourcing its ground agent jobs at almost all Brazilian airports.
Brazilian bus company Itapemirim is launching a new airline in June, betting it can dodge the financial ruin that has grounded many rival carriers even though the land transport company just spent five years reorganizing under bankruptcy protection, Reuters reported. The carrier expects to have a fleet of 50 Airbus A320 planes by next year, all painted in Itapemirim’s signature bright yellow color, trying to beat the odds that have led 11 airlines to fail in Brazil so far this century.