Chile

Chile's President Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday a $3.7 billion economic recovery plan that includes a hike in the minimum wage, subsidies and financing for sectors of the economy still battling fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. Key goals of the plan, the president said, include creating 500,000 jobs and raising the current monthly minimum wage of 350,000 pesos ($434) to 400,000 pesos ($496) by the end of the year.

Chile’s incoming Finance Minister Mario Marcel pledged to reduce uncertainty and seek to control debt levels, as he gets ready to take the reins of the economy next month as part of the new administration of President-elect Gabriel Boric, Bloomberg News reported. Establishing a fiscal base that allows the new government to execute its plans is priority, Marcel told reporters in Santiago on Tuesday after a meeting with outgoing Finance Minister Rodrigo Cerda.

A group of Latam Airlines Group SA’s creditors said they are prepared to provide alternative financing if a bankruptcy judge rejects a financial lifeline from another creditor group, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The splinter group of creditors, which includes Pentwater Capital Management LP, Invictus Global Management LLC and Avenue Capital Group, said it is ready to backstop $400 million of a rights offering and roughly $3.27 billion in the sale of convertible notes.

Chile’s central bank head Rosanna Costa ruled out an emergency meeting to address the high January inflation numbers and warned of higher interest rates at the next policy meeting in March, according to La Tercera, Bloomberg News reported.

Latam Airlines Group SA can send its $5.4 billion bankruptcy-exit plan to creditors for a vote, a judge said Tuesday, handing the airline a partial victory over debtholders who want to pursue alternatives, including a takeover by rival Azul SA, Bloomberg News reported. The decision means the company can seek final court approval for its reorganization plan in April and possibly exit bankruptcy several months after that, should it get support from securities regulators in Chile, where Latam is based.

Latam Airlines Group SA “flatly rejected” Azul SA’s offer to buy the bankrupt carrier even though the sale would be a better deal for creditors, Azul contends in new court filings, Bloomberg News reported. Azul for months has been expressing interest in a tie-up with Chile’s Latam, but the bankrupt airline has refused to seriously engage in talks, lawyers for Brazil-based Azul said in court papers. Azul said its deal outlined in a Nov. 11 term sheet values Latam at $13 billion and would provide more for creditors than Latam’s current proposal, which is on the verge of seeking court approval.

Local creditors of Latam Airlines Group SA are up in arms over a bankruptcy plan that would leave them with next to nothing even as holders of overseas bonds get almost all their money back, Bloomberg News reported. BancoEstado SA, a Santiago-based bank acting on behalf of local noteholders, has asked Latin America’s largest airline to improve its terms. The investors are threatening to sue if their demands aren’t meant, and contend that as a Chilean company, Latam should have filed for protection in local courts — instead of New York — that would have treated domestic creditors better.

Latam Airlines Group SA’s official low-ranking creditor group is unhappy with the Chilean carrier’s bankruptcy exit proposal, arguing a sale to rival Azul SA could leave its members much better off, Bloomberg News reported. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Santiago-based Latam’s unsecured creditor committee said the airline’s current reorganization plan is so unfair that it can’t win court approval. It flouts U.S. bankruptcy rules by favoring some evenly-ranked creditors over others and giving value to shareholders that don’t deserve it, lawyers for the group wrote.

Brazilian airline Azul SA confirmed on Monday that it made an offer earlier this month to combine with Chile’s LATAM Airlines Group , which is in bankruptcy proceedings, but said it had since decided to focus on its own operations, Retuers reported. In an exchange filing published late on Sunday, Azul said that it would consider potential partnerships only in the future. The Brazilian airline said its non-binding proposal submitted on Nov. 11 had included around $5 billion in equity financing and was backed by some creditors of LATAM.

Chile's LATAM Airlines Group SA said on Friday that it has filed a reorganization plan, proposing an $8.19 billion infusion of capital into the group, in a bid to exit its chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported. The financing proposal will include a mix of new equity, convertible notes and debt, the group said in a statement, adding that it intends to launch an $800 million equity rights offering to shareholders, upon confirmation of the plan.