After announcing an acquisition deal with investors from the US and UK to resolve its bankruptcy process, WOM Colombia is now planning to begin deploying 5G networks, BNAmericas.com reported. “We will be deploying [5G] infrastructure in the second half of the year,” said WOM Colombia CEO Ramiro Lafarga. WOM acquired spectrum in the 3.5GHz band in December 2023 but has not yet initiated the network deployment. The company paid approximately US$74mn and committed to connecting 3,180 schools and establishing 24 base stations with 4G coverage along primary and secondary roads.

Global airlines are in talks with Gol to invest in the Brazilian airline, which is undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the U.S., local newspaper Valor Economico reported yesterday, according to Reuters. The report mentions U.S.-based companies United Airlines and American Airlines, as well as European firms Air France-KLM, International Airlines Group and Lufthansa Group among the groups in talks with Gol.

AgroGalaxy Participacoes SA, a Brazilian agricultural supplies retailer that sought creditor protection last year, plunged the most in more than a month as its third-quarter loss widened because of expenses related to the bankruptcy process, Bloomberg News reported. The loss was 1.6 billion Brazilian reais ($265 million), roughly 18 times its loss a year earlier, the company said Monday. AgroGalaxy had postponed the earnings release twice.

Azul and Gol, two of Brazil's largest airlines, are moving a step closer to a sweeping merger that would create a dominant carrier in Latin America's No. 1 economy, a securities filing showed on Wednesday. The union of the two companies, which follows months of talks and market speculation, would hold roughly 60% of the domestic market, far surpassing the local unit of Chile-based LATAM Airlines.

Brazil’s economic activity barely grew on the month in November as central bankers try to tame consumer demand by raising interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank’s economic activity index, a proxy for gross domestic product, ticked up 0.1% from the month prior, slightly above the forecast for no change from economists in a Bloomberg survey. From a year before, the gauge grew 4.11%, according to a report published Thursday. The bank also revised October’s monthly growth to 0.09% from 0.14% before.

Argentina’s central bank said payment intermediaries will have to enable debit card transactions in US currency by Feb. 28, marking a key step in President Javier Milei’s pledge to dollarize the economy, Bloomberg News reported. The bank also developed a program to allow people to make installed payments in either dollars or pesos. The move aims to “bolster currency competition in order to allow people and businesses to use the currency they wish in their daily transactions,” according to a central bank statement on Thursday.

Brazilian airline Gol released a revised five-year strategic plan on Wednesday as it prepares to exit chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, saying that the new forecasts would serve as a base for its reorganization, Reuters reported. Gol said in a securities filing that it expects to emerge from chapter 11 in May, and sees its net leverage "substantially improving" going forward as it rebuilds its network and returns to "normal levels" of core earnings by next year.

Argentina's central bank will slow the rate of the local peso's devaluation, it said on Tuesday, after new data showed annual inflation slowing in December and as the central bank sees continued progress on inflation, Reuters reported. Beginning in February, the rate, known as the crawling peg, will slow to 1% per month from a prior rate of 2% due to "the consolidation observed in the inflationary trajectory during the last few months, and in the expectations of a decrease in inflation," the central bank said in a statement.

Argentina paid international bondholders before a Thursday deadline, marking another step in President Javier Milei’s efforts to restore investors’ confidence in the serial defaulter, Bloomberg News reported. The government had some $4 billion worth of debt, between principal and interest payments, due on a slate of hard-currency notes. The payment included some $2.65 billion of credits issued under New York law in a 2020 restructuring. Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno said on a post on X Thursday morning that the government made its debt payments, without giving further details.

Chile’s consumer prices fell last month for the first time since June, giving the central bank only limited relief as it monitors inflationary threats including higher electricity tariffs and a weak currency, Bloomberg News reported. Prices fell 0.2% in December, below all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of analysts that had a median estimate of no change. Annual inflation accelerated to 4.5%, the national statistics institute reported on Wednesday. Central bankers led by Rosanna Costa have cut borrowing costs by 6.25 percentage points since mid-2023 to the current level of 5%.