LATAM Airlines Group, the region’s largest airline, on Tuesday reported a loss of $962.5 million in the fourth quarter, hurt by a second wave of the pandemic which has hit Latin America particularly hard, Reuters reported. LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection last May and is still going through a court-supervised reorganization in the United States. Overall in 2020, the airline lost $4.6 billion, compared with a pre-pandemic profit of $196 million in 2019.
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Sustainable debt sales are suddenly booming in Latin America, as investors looking for larger returns in environmentally and socially friendly securities grow more comfortable with buying high-yield bonds, Bloomberg News reported. Borrowers in the region have raised about $8.7 billion in international debt deals tied to environmental, social and governance projects so far this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s approaching the record $10.8 billion issued all of last year. And there’s plenty more to come.
Argentine farmer Javier Rotondo says he should be reaping a historic bounty with grain prices surging to their highest level in years, the Wall Street Journal reported. Instead, he reduced his corn crop by 20% after authorities temporarily suspended exports to reduce food prices, one of several measures by Argentina’s leftist government that economists say are suffocating business. Mr. Rotondo expects to take on debt to pay a new wealth tax, and he is bracing for price controls after President Alberto Fernández recently warned ranchers that rising beef prices won’t be tolerated.
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Brazil’s Supreme Court could upend years of work by the Carwash anti-corruption task force that sent some of the nation’s top politicians and businessmen to jail, Bloomberg News reported. A panel of five judges is discussing whether Sergio Moro, once the judge in charge of the investigation and its most public face, was biased in his rulings against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. If he’s deemed unfit, the decision could open the door for others he convicted to request their cases be reviewed.
Rio Tinto PLC said that its chairman would step down because of its destruction of two ancient rock shelters in Australia last year, bowing to demands from some investors for greater accountability for the incident, the Wall Street Journal reported. Rio Tinto said that Simon Thompson won’t seek reelection next year, tying the decision to the May demolition of the Juukan Gorge shelters that contained a trove of artifacts indicating they had been occupied by humans more than 46,000 years ago.
A U.S. judge on Wednesday quashed a bid to widen the scope of a civil lawsuit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that accused miner Rio Tinto of fraud at its Mozambican coal business, a court filing showed, Reuters reported. The SEC filed a complaint against Rio in 2017 with allegations that it had fraudulently concealed the decline in value of the business. Rio had acquired Riversdale mining for $3.7 billion in 2011, on the premise it would be able to barge 30 million tonnes of coal per year down the Zambezi river, and rail a further 12-15 million tonnes of coal per year to port.
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Shares in Brazilian banks were down in late afternoon trading on Monday as media reported the government will raise taxes on banks as a way to compensate for tax exemptions for fuel, Reuters reported. According to O Globo newspaper, the government will raise one of the taxes paid by banks, a contribution over net income, from 20% to 23%. The government is also planning to end some tax exemptions for vehicles and petrochemical products, the newspaper said. President Jair Bolsonaro has promised truckers to reduce diesel prices by cutting federal taxes on the fuel.
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Brazilian fuel distributors are scrambling to secure diesel supplies for March and April after state-run oil company Petrobras said it would not fully meet their demand, adding to uncertainty amid a sudden management shakeup, Reuters reported. National oil industry regulator ANP confirmed to Reuters that distributors are searching for alternative diesel supplies after Petrobras turned down their orders, but the agency played down concerns of diesel shortages during a bumper soy harvest.
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Member countries of the World Trade Organization are aiming to resurrect a dormant system for resolving trade disputes that has been a point of friction between the U.S. and other nations, the Wall Street Journal reported. The WTO’s Appellate Body, the apex of the Geneva-based group’s dispute-settlement system, has been effectively shut down since 2019 after the Trump administration blocked the appointment of new judges. U.S. complaints about the system, which predate the Trump presidency, center on Appellate Body rulings against tariffs and other remedies, limiting what U.S.
Petrobras shares plunged 21% on Monday, wiping out 70 billion reais ($12.7 billion) in market value, as Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro again slammed its pricing policies after he replaced the state-controlled oil company’s market-friendly CEO with a retired army general, Reuters reported. The selloff, following a series of analyst downgrades, deepened after Bolsonaro said the company’s fuel policy was only pleasing to financial markets and select groups in Brazil and should be changed as part of an effort to lower gasoline and diesel prices.