Azul SA’s shares jumped after the Brazilian airline inked an agreement with its bondholders, allowing a crucial deal to move forward with its lessors and parts suppliers that reduces the airline’s debt and boosts its cash position, Bloomberg News reported. The deal allows for existing creditors to provide as much as $500 million in new senior secured debt, with $150 million to be provided this week and $250 million by the end of the year, according to a regulatory filing Monday. Another $100 million could be unlocked at a later date, Azul said.

Investors are no longer betting Argentina is heading inevitably to default as President Javier Milei wins over bond markets with his plans to remake South America’s second-largest economy, Bloomberg News reported. The extra-yield investors demand to hold Argentine paper over similarly dated US Treasury yields closed below 10 percentage points, a level that traditionally signals distress, according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. The spread is at its lowest levels since August 2019, when former President Mauricio Macri was in office.

Brazil's federal government on Friday reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the mining companies responsible for a 2015 dam collapse that the government said was the country's worst-ever environmental disaster, the Associated Press reported. Under the agreement, Samarco — a joint venture of Brazilian mining giant Vale and Anglo-Australian firm BHP — will pay 132 billion reais ($23 billion) over 20 years.

The number of companies in Colombia filing for insolvency this year is on track to reach its highest level in a decade, heaping pressure on President Gustavo Petro to pull the country out of its economic doldrums, Bloomberg News reported. The surge in financially distressed firms is being driven by a sharp contraction in the construction industry, one of the nation’s biggest employers, that’s partly a result of a housing subsidy overhaul by Petro’s own government. Economists worry that ripple effects from businesses shutting down will hold back growth in the broader economy.

Inflation in Brazil accelerated in the month to mid-October, as higher electricity costs pushed consumer prices up in Latin America's largest economy, Reuters reported. Prices as measured by the IPCA-15 index rose 0.54% in the month to mid-October, up from 0.13% in the previous month, government statistics agency IBGE said on Thursday. In the 12 months to mid-October, inflation stood at 4.47%, up from the 4.12% seen the month before and above the 4.43% forecast by economists. The main impact on inflation in the month to mid-October came from residential electricity prices, which rose 5.29%.

A ruling by a high court has set back a distressed takeover by Bunge Global SA of Vicentin SAIC, once the crown jewel of Argentina’s massive soybean-processing industry, Bloomberg News reported. Five of the six judges in the supreme court of Santa Fe province — where family-run Vicentin filed for bankruptcy protection nearly five years ago after a $1.5 billion default — ruled on Tuesday to take on a complaint by a hostile creditor.

Brazilian airline Azul is in talks with multiple parties to raise about $400 million in fresh capital via debt financing and an agreement may come as soon as this week, three sources close to the discussions told Reuters. Azul dominates Brazil's airline industry along with LATAM and Gol. It managed to avoid chapter 11 even as a number of Latin American carriers filed for bankruptcy after the COVID-19 pandemic, including its two main rivals.

Azul SA’s efforts to raise $400 million in fresh debt have hit a snag, with the troubled Brazilian airline rushing to raise the cash it needs to meet a key condition of its deal with aircraft lessors, Bloomberg News reported. Jefferies Financial Group had been reaching out to potential investors to help Azul raise cash through the sale of new debt that can be converted to equity, the people said, asking not to be named discussing private details. But the bank has so far come up short of the full amount.

Key terms of a proposed court agreement with a U.S. hedge fund seeking to gain control of oil refiner Citgo Petroleum from Venezuela would lock in the fund's low-ball bid, the company's creditors said in new court filings against the deal, Reuters reported. The backlash to Elliott Investment Management's wholly-owned Amber Energy's offer ends any chance this year of a change to Citgo's ownership to satisfy debt defaults and expropriations by Venezuela.

Brazil's central bank chief Roberto Campos Neto on Monday highlighted a "huge" de-anchoring of inflation expectations in the country, adding that it is "very important" to bring inflation back to the 3% target, and policymakers are committed to doing so, Reuters reported. Speaking at an event hosted by the 20-20 Investment Association, Campos Neto said tight labor market data indicates the need to closely monitor services inflation. He also reiterated that policymakers chose not to provide monetary guidance to allow time to assess the evolving scenario.