LATAM Airlines, opens new tab said on Wednesday its board gave approval to begin the process of re-listing American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) on the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters reported. In a filing to Chile's stock exchange, the company said the process involves meeting various requirements from the NYSE and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and could take up to six months. The Santiago-based carrier traded ADRs, which foreign companies use to list their shares on U.S. stock exchanges, on the NYSE before declaring bankruptcy in 2020.
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South America
Chilean port workers staged protests on Thursday, disrupting the loading and unloading of ships in one of the biggest exporters of raw materials from copper and lithium to pulp and fruit, Bloomberg News reported. A planned 24-hour strike by members of the UPC and FTPC umbrella unions began around 8 a.m. local time. The Ventanas port confirmed activities undertaken by union members are suspended. Television images showed workers blocking roads near the biggest port of Valparaiso. Local media reported protests by stevedores in the town of Talcahuano.
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Chinese lenders are concerned about future investments at a $1.3 billion port in Peru set to be inaugurated this year, executives told a congressional committee, Bloomberg News reported. Peru’s government is trying to revoke a deal that granted Chinese state-owned company Cosco Shipping exclusive rights to run the new Chancay Port. While most major Peruvian ports have a single operator, Peru argues it didn’t have the legal authority to grant the new facility the same treatment.
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Chile’s central bank slowed the pace of interest rate cuts and left its options open for the size of future reductions, signaling caution in the face of inflation risks from stronger economic activity and a weaker peso, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers cut their interest rate by three quarters of a percentage point to 6.5% on Tuesday, as expected by nearly all analysts in a Bloomberg survey. In a statement, they wrote borrowing costs will continue to fall, and that the easing cycle will consider the evolution of the economy and effects on inflation.
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WOM, once a rising Chilean startup that vowed to challenge the country’s dominant telecom operators, filed for bankruptcy after falling short on a plan to refinance $348 million in debt due in November, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed for chapter 11 protection in Delaware, according to court documents filed today. The filing, which lists between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities and same in assets, allows WOM to keep operating while it works on a plan to repay creditors.
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In the fertile lands of Tungurahua and Cotopaxi, the livelihoods of 17,000 farmers hang in the balance due to a devastating drought that has left irrigation canals critical to their crops without water, hortidaily.com reported. A catastrophic landslide has destroyed the water collection system in the Latacunga-Salcedo-Ambato irrigation canal, plunging farmers into a desperate fight for survival. The irrigation canal had been dry for 19 days when a landslide destroyed a section of the catchment system in Salcedo on March 5, 2024.
Restructuring Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol swung to a net loss of R1.1 billion ($221 million) in the fourth quarter, the first results it has disclosed since entering bankruptcy protection in January, FlightGlobal reported. The loss compared to a net profit of R231 million for the same period in 2022 and reflects the R1.1 billion impact of foreign exchange losses and other one-off items during the fourth quarter.
Brazil's finance ministry unveiled on Tuesday its proposal to reduce the burden of states' debt to the federal government, conditioned upon allocating resources to technical high school education, Reuters reported. The move comes after several governors have requested lower charges, arguing that the amount paid in interest is excessively high and hampers investment.
WOM Chile and some of its creditors have tapped advisers ahead of potential debt talks, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of global bonds issued by the mobile operator began working with Dechert LLP this week, according to the people, who asked not to be named as the negotiations are private. They didn’t identify members of the bondholder group that retained the law firm. Some bondholders also hired Ducera Partners LLC as an adviser, according to two other people familiar with the matter.
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Argentina’s economy shrank in the fourth quarter, consolidating a full year of negative growth, even before incoming President Javier Milei slashed spending as part of his shock therapy, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product fell 1.9% compared to the period between July and September, according to official government data published Wednesday. Activity contracted 1.4% from a year earlier, slightly less the median estimate of a 1.5% decline of economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
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