Mexico

Metrofinanciera SA, a closely held provider of mortgage loans in Mexico, sought bankruptcy court protection from U.S. creditors, Bloomberg reported. The company, based in Monterrey, Mexico listed both debt and assets of more than $500 million in Chapter 15 documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi, Texas. Chapter 15 protects foreign companies from U.S. lawsuits and creditor claims while a company reorganizes abroad.

Compania Mexicana de Aviacion is unlikely to resume operations after grounding all its flights over the weekend, four weeks after filing for bankruptcy protection in Mexico and the U.S., UBS AG said, Bloomberg reported. That will initially curb air traffic and hurt airport operators, including Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste SAB, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB and Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte SAB, UBS analysts Tomas Lajous and Luis Galvez wrote today in an e-mailed note. “We expect this should be permanent,” the analysts wrote.

Mexicana Airlines shut down all flights on Saturday, marking at least a temporary disappearance from the skies of one of the world's oldest air carriers, the Economic Times reported. Some airlines offered preferential deals to Mexican passengers scrambling to find alternatives, but many were baffled by how to get home. The loss of Grupo Mexicana flights eliminated much of the air service to many Mexican cities.

Mexican auto-parts company Sanluis Corporacion SAB said Wednesday that its unit Sanluis Co-Inter has filed for bankruptcy protection as it seeks to restructure its debt, Dow Jones reported. At the end of June, Sanluis Co-Inter defaulted on $88.1 million in notes that were issued in 2002 under a debt refinancing, prompting holders of around $132 million in mandatorily convertible debentures due June 2011 to accelerate payment, demanding cash. The default of the June 2010 notes came after Sanluis rescheduled $146 million in bank debt, to which the Co-Inter notes are subordinate.

Mexico's Labor Minister, Javier Lozano, said he isn't optimistic about the prospects of a group of investors for saving airline company Mexicana from bankruptcy and rejected a proposal by the new owners to lay off three-quarters of the carrier's flight attendants, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported.

Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico SA, the holding company for airline Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, was purchased yesterday by a group of Mexican investors and the country’s pilots’ union, according to a member of the investment group and a union leader, Bloomberg reported. Tenedora K, which was formed in order to purchase Mexicana, bought 95 percent of the airline’s shares, union secretary general Fernando Perfecto said yesterday. The pilots’ union owns 5 percent of the company, said Perfecto, who was involved in the negotiations.

A bankruptcy judge issued a preliminary injunction shielding Compania Mexicana de Aviacion from creditors seeking to seize its U.S. assets, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled in the Chapter 15 bankruptcy case of airline Mexicana's main unit for international flights. The case is a companion of the unit's main bankruptcy proceeding in Mexico.

Investment fund Advent International could invest some $49 million into Mexico's Mexicana de Aviacion to keep the airline flying, local media and a union said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Pilots from Mexicana de Aviacion reached a preliminary deal this week that calls for wage cuts and staff reduction in a desperate bid to keep the 89-year-old airline operating, according to local media. Mexicana has halted more than a dozen international routes and stopped selling tickets after requesting creditor protection two weeks ago under Mexico's insolvency law, called concurso mercantil.

Airline Mexicana said Wednesday it is returning a quarter of its aircraft fleet to leasing companies and suspending some services offered by its low-cost and regional arms for the first time amid a deepening crisis at Mexico's largest carrier, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, the main unit for international flights, had already suspended some flights after filing for insolvency and bankruptcy protection on Aug. 2.

Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico’s biggest airline by passengers, agreed to return at least eight leased airplanes and a U.S. judge put off ruling on a bid to shield the company from creditors, Bloomberg reported. Mexicana agreed to return three planes to Wells Fargo & Co. One was returned in July, Arthur Rosenberg, a lawyer for Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA, said today in an interview. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan today postponed ruling on Mexicana’s request for a preliminary injunction barring legal actions by creditors.