Mexico

Mexican glass maker Vitro SAB said Monday it has launched two offers--a proposed swap and partial buyback--of three series of defaulted notes for $1.22 billion as it seeks to restructure its debt, Dow Jones reported.In a filing with the Mexican stock exchange, Vitro said the offers are aimed as a step toward achieving a debt restructuring which would be carried out under the Mexican equivalent of Chapter 11. Vitro, which has seen several previous restructuring offers rejected by creditors, said its largest single creditor, Fintech Advisory Ltd., has agreed to support the latest proposal.

Vitro SAB offered to buy back or swap $1.2 billion in debt from bondholders as the company prepares to seek bankruptcy protection before the end of the year. The bonds jumped and shares climbed to the highest in more than two years, Bloomberg reported. Mexico’s largest glassmaker will file for bankruptcy in Mexico and under Chapter 15 in the U.S. within the next two months, Chief Restructuring Officer Claudio del Valle said in a conference call with reporters today. Debt holders may get as much as 73 cents on the dollar under the terms proposed today, the Monterrey-based company said.

Mexico's largest nonbank mortgage lender, Hipotecaria Su Casita, said Thursday that it missed principal and interest payments on local notes for a total of MXN730.7 million ($58.7 million), but added that negotiations continue with creditors on a restructuring, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Despite the defaults, "negotiations with holders of these notes and with the rest of Su Casita's creditors continue aimed at reaching an agreement for the financial restructuring of the company," Su Casita said.

Mexican banking concern Ixe Grupo Financiero SAB said Tuesday that it may participate "with a very small stake" in grounded airline Grupo Mexicana if negotiations to bring the carrier out of bankruptcy proceedings are successful, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Hipotecaria Su Casita SA, the private issuer of mortgage-backed debt that failed to sell itself to BBVA Bancomer SA, plans to present a restructuring plan to debt holders today, Bloomberg reported. The proposal includes offering short- and long-term debt holders equity in the company, new debt and cash payments, Su Casita said today in an e-mailed statement to Mexico’s stock exchange. Su Casita said Sept. 10 that it was evaluating “other alternatives” after a deal to sell part of its assets to the Mexican unit of Banco Bilboa Vizcaya Argentaria SA fell through.

Boeing Co. is looking for new customers for the 717 planes previously flown by the low-cost arm of arm of Grupo Mexicana, which have been grounded for a month after the company filed for bankruptcy protection, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. MexicanaLink operated 20 Boeing 717s leased from Boeing Capital, according to consultancy Ascend Worldwide. Owners and lessors have repossessed a handful of the 109 planes flown by the group and are working to recover and remarket the remainder, despite faint hopes that a slimmed-down Mexicana could restart later this year.

Aerospace giant Airbus says it’s confused as to why Mexicana continues to order replacement parts even though the Mexican airline hasn’t operated flights for the past month, The Wall Street Journal Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. Airbus is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan for vendor protections, such as assurance that it will be paid within seven days of delivering parts, after it received several unexpected orders from Mexicana in the past two weeks.

Several U.S. airports, including New York's John F. Kennedy International, said Compania Mexicana de Aviacion has failed to make a promised Sept. 15 payment to them, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In papers filed Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, the airports demanded additional protections for the amounts owed to them, including the right to tap certain letters of credit and to take back space assigned to Mexicana in their facilities, after the Mexican airline reneged on a promise to pay fees.

A judge has granted bankruptcy protection to ailing Mexicana airline, which indefinitely suspended all its flights last month, judicial sources said Tuesday, Agence France-Presse reported. The group has one year to restructure and avoid bankruptcy, judge Felipe Consuelo Soto, from the Federal Judicial Council, said in the ruling late Monday. The judge called for the Communications and Transportation Ministry to name a new administrator to deal with the airline's creditors within five days.

Mexico's government is hopeful that the troubles of grounded airline company Mexicana will be resolved in time for the December travel season, when millions of local and foreign tourists will flock to resorts such as Cancun for holidays, a government official said. "Our goal must be that Mexicana returns to the skies by the December high season," Labor Minister Javier Lozano said at a press conference Wednesday, according to a transcript from the ministry, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.