United States

LATAM Airlines yesterday turned back two challenges to its bankruptcy reorganization plan, putting the carrier a step closer to emerging from chapter 11 after seeking protection from creditors in the early months of the pandemic, Reuters reported. LATAM said in a statement it was pleased by a U.S. bankruptcy court's decision confirming its reorganization plan in which two groups of creditors lost their appeals. LATAM, which filed for bankruptcy in 2020, won court approval to exit chapter 11 in June.

There was much relief for investors in U.S.-listed Chinese firms after Beijing and Washington struck a long-pending audit deal, but legal experts and China watchers warn the two sides could still clash over how the accord is interpreted and implemented, Reuters reported. U.S. regulators have for more than a decade demanded access to audit papers of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, but Beijing has been reluctant to let U.S. regulators inspect its accounting firms, citing national security concerns.

A U.S. judge on Friday recommended that victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks not be allowed to seize billions of dollars of assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank to satisfy court judgments they obtained against the Taliban, Reuters reported. U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in Manhattan said Da Afghanistan Bank was immune from jurisdiction, and that allowing the seizures would effectively acknowledge the Islamist militant group as the Afghan government, something only the U.S. president can do.

Cineworld Group Plc, the owner of Regal Cinemas, is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after struggling to rebuild attendance from pandemic lows, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The British cinema company has engaged lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis LLP and consultants from AlixPartners to advise on the bankruptcy process, these people said. Cineworld is expected to file a chapter 11 petition in the U.S. and is considering filing an insolvency proceeding in the U.K., they said.

Endo International Plc filed for bankruptcy yesterday after reaching a $6 billion deal with some of its creditors, as the U.S. drugmaker seeks to settle thousands of lawsuits over its alleged role in the country's opioid epidemic, Reuters reported. The pharmaceutical company is the latest to file for chapter 11 to address opioid claims. Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, filed in September 2019, while Mallinckrodt Plc, a generic opioid manufacturer, recently emerged from bankruptcy.

UK-based Altera Infrastructure has entered a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the U.S. to address its debt of over $1.5 billion, Offshore-Energy.biz reported. Formerly a part of Teekay, Altera Infrastructure is based in Westhill, Scotland and it is a supplier of infrastructure assets to the offshore energy industry. In a statement on Monday, the company said that it has executed a restructuring support agreement (the RSA) with approximately 71 percent of its funded debt obligations, which includes an investment management company Brookfield and a super-majority of its bank lenders.

Scandinavian airline SAS said on Saturday it entered into an agreement with Apollo Global Management to raise $700 million of fresh financing it needs to see it through bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States in early July to help cut debt after the collapse of wage talks between the airline and its pilots, triggering a 15-day strike that added to travel chaos across Europe. SAS said in a statement it expects to complete the Chapter 11 restructuring process in nine to 12 months.

Endo International PLC, a pharmaceutical manufacturer facing thousands of lawsuits alleging it fueled the opioid addiction crisis, said Tuesday that it is likely to file for bankruptcy imminently, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company said that it is in negotiations with a group of senior lenders that it expects will result in an agreement for a chapter 11 filing. Endo also said that it is in discussions with opioid litigants as well as other creditors but didn’t say that it has reached a proposed deal with them.

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash, accusing it of helping hackers, including from North Korea, to launder proceeds from their cyber crimes, Reuters reported. A senior Treasury Department official said that Tornado Cash, one of the largest mixers identified as problematic by the Treasury, has reportedly laundered more than $7 billion worth of virtual currency since it was created in 2019.

The U.S. public company accounting regulator will not accept any restrictions on its access to the audit papers of Chinese companies listed in New York, including where firms have been delisted, two people with knowledge of the U.S. agency's thinking told Reuters. Washington and Beijing are in talks to settle a long-running dispute over the auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms which, if unresolved, could see more than 270 Chinese firms kicked off New York bourses.