Brazilian airline Gol said on Wednesday it has signed a deal with shareholder Abra to reinforce its current restructuring plan and raise credit to exit bankruptcy, including the conversion of $950 million in Abra's secured debt into Gol shares, Reuters reported. Abra is the main investor in airlines Gol and Avianca. The agreement is related to Gol's chapter 11 request, filed in January. According to the filing, Gol will present a restructuring plan that will allow a significant reduction of its leverage.
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Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Monday that fiscal measures to support the country’s fiscal framework could be announced this week, adding that the government is in the final stages of preparation for the announcement, Reuters reported. Speaking to reporters, he said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to call him later on Monday for a meeting on the matter. "After the meeting with him, I'll speak with you," he said.
Argentina’s central bank lowered its benchmark interest rate Friday for the first time in nearly six months as President Javier Milei continues to oversee a slowdown in inflation in the crisis-prone economy, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary authority cut borrowing costs to 35% from 40%, according to a press release sent via text message. The decision is based on the country’s liquidity context, the lowering of consumer price expectations and the government’s fiscal anchor, the bank said. Argentina also reduced rates for notes known locally as pases to 40% from 45%.
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Colombia’s central bank ignored pressure to accelerate the pace of interest rate cuts as policymakers weigh fiscal risks that sent the peso to its weakest level in more than a year, Bloomberg News reported. The seven-member board voted 4-3 to lower the benchmark rate by half a percentage point to 9.75%, Governor Leonardo Villar told reporters in Bogota on Thursday. The minority voted for a bigger reduction, to 9.5%.
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Azul SA’s credit score was cut one notch by S&P Global Ratings, which called the airline’s agreement with bondholders for additional financing a distressed transaction, Bloomberg News reported. S&P downgraded the Brazilian carrier to CC from CCC+ with a negative outlook, according to a statement released Wednesday. Azul inked a deal with its creditors this week for as much as $500 million in new senior secured debt, with $150 million to be provided initially and $250 million by the end of the year.
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Brazil's net imports of crypto assets in the nine months through September 2024 increased by 60.7% over the same period last year, already exceeding the full-year total for 2023, central bank data showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The surge in Brazil's crypto market, the world's tenth-largest according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, was fueled by a significant increase in so-called stablecoins - which are pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar.
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Colombia sold $3.64 billion of dollar bonds on Monday, tapping international debt markets for the first time in almost seven months, Bloomberg News reported. The South American country sold $2 billion in notes maturing in 2036 and $1.64 billion in bonds due in 2054 to yield 7.8% and 8,5%, respectively, tighter than initial price talks of 8.15% and 8.8%. Citigroup, Itau BBA and SMBC Nikko are handling the deal, according to a filing. Proceeds will be used for general budgetary purposes and to buy back up to all of Colombia’s notes maturing in 2026 and 2027, the filing shows.
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.
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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.
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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.
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