South America

Consolidation would lower the cost of capital for Latin American airlines, resulting in better services for customers, according to Azul SA Chief Executive Officer John Peter Rodgerson, Bloomberg News reported. “We’ve always been big believers in consolidation,” Rodgerson said in an interview in New York Wednesday. “The product improves for customers, and it could really strengthen a great market in Brazil that we’re seeing today.” Rodgerson declined to comment on “active” M&A processes.

Bidders in a U.S. court auction of shares that will decide the ownership of Venezuela-owned U.S. oil refiner Citgo Petroleum can be required to say if their binding offers cover claims by Venezuela bondholders in a separate court action, a U.S. District Court judge ruled on Friday, Reuters reported. The decision lets bidders seeking to place multi-billion dollar offers for a Citgo parent's shares to be asked if they plan to set aside cash or consider how they may accommodate Venezuela 2020 note holders seeking payment of $3 billion in principal debt.

Millions of Colombians will need to pay two new fees on their pension savings according to latest draft of the pension bill sent to the Lower House on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. Lawmakers modified the bill to allow fund managers to charge a fee of as much as 2% on profits, while also retaining a controversial annual fee of up to 0.7% on assets under management. Currently, so-called obligatory pension funds charge a fee upfront, but nothing after that. Congress defied calls by President Gustavo Petro to push more savings automatically into the public system.

Uruguay’s first initial public offering under streamlined regulations introduced two years ago is expected to launch in late June, testing investor appetite for the South American country’s tech sector, Bloomberg News reported. Zorzal Inversiones Tecnologicas SA will sell as much as $15.5 million in shares, which it will use to buy minority stakes in at least five profitable local tech companies with annual sales of $3 million or more, said Jaime Miller, general partner at Montevideo-based investment banking firm Capital Oriental that is structuring the IPO and will also run Zorzal.

Brazil’s central bank chief justified his decision to change the institution’s written guidance on interest rates during a public speech, one day after another board member said such a move should have been discussed with the whole board and communicated through more formal channels, Bloomberg News reported. Roberto Campos Neto made it clear during a speech in Washington last month that the bank may not make the additional half-point cut it had previously signaled in statements, opening the door for the smaller quarter-point reduction it delivered last week.

Argentines are rushing to banks to apply for mortgages as interest-rate reductions since President Javier Milei took power begin to wake the home-loan market from a six-year slumber, Bloomberg News reported. “People are very anxious, inquiries overflowed our communication channels and we are overwhelmed,” Daniel Tillard, president of Banco Nacion, the country’s largest state-owned lender, said in an interview. The bank announced it will disburse some $4 billion of mortgages over the next four years to 40,000 potential home owners.

Argentina’s monthly inflation rate eased sharply to a single-digit rate in April for the first time in half a year, data released Tuesday showed, a closely watched indicator that bolsters President Javier Milei’s severe austerity program aimed at fixing the country’s troubled economy, the Associated Press reported.

Brazil’s central bank said it unanimously sees more restrictive interest rates ahead as the institution tries to calm investors following a split policy decision that exposed rifts among its board members, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” central bankers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Brazil’s central bank said more restrictive rates are needed to fulfill its commitment to hitting the inflation target, according to the minutes to its split decision on borrowing costs that rattled investors, Bloomberg News reported. “In the end, it was unanimously concluded that a more contractionary and more cautious monetary policy was needed,” policymakers wrote in minutes to their May 7-8 rate decision, when they cut the benchmark Selic rate by a quarter-point to 10.5%.

Prices in Argentina are climbing, despite positive signs of a deceleration, with the embattled South American country's annual inflation rate set to edge closer to 300% when the government reveals the latest data on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Shopkeepers and consumers said that although monthly inflation readings have slowed since a peak over 25% in December, the change has yet to be fully felt on the ground. The inflation rate is set to edge back under single digits in April for the first time in six months.