United States

Garrett Motion Inc., a maker of turbochargers and other automotive equipment, is exploring strategic options including a sale, Bloomberg News reported. The Rolle, Switzerland-based company is working with an adviser on a possible sale. Garrett is expected to attract interest from companies looking to enhance their electric-vehicle operations. Garrett, originally known as Honeywell Transportation Systems, was spun off in 2018. It filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 after struggling with loan repayments.

The largest pilots union of Latam Airlines in Chile voted to strike on Wednesday, a day before the company said it was planning on concluding its exit from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The Union of Latam Pilots (SPL) said it represents 313 of Latam Airlines's approximately 500 pilots and that 99% of its members voted to approve the strike.

LATAM Airlines, the biggest carrier in Latin America, said it plans to conclude its exit from bankruptcy on Nov. 3, Reuters reported. "This process will allow the group to emerge more agile, with a more competitive cost structure, adequate liquidity to face the future, with approximately $10.3 billion in equity, and close to $6.9 billion in debt," the company said in a statement late on Friday. LATAM filed for chapter 11 in 2020 after airline travel was hammered during the pandemic, and it won court approval that June.

A federal appeals court deferred ruling on whether U.S. bondholders have valid claims over Venezuela’s prized oil refiner Citgo Petroleum Corp., instead asking New York state’s highest court to decide on the disputed $1.7 billion debt, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York asked for guidance on whether bondholders are entitled to seize the controlling stake in Citgo they hold as collateral after Venezuela’s opposition movement stopped making payments on bonds secured by the Houston-based refiner.

LATAM Airlines detailed a financing plan on Wednesday that the company hopes will finalize its exit from bankruptcy in the first week of November, Reuters reported. The company filed for chapter 11 in 2020 after airline travel plummeted during the pandemic and won court approval that June. The reorganization plan would inject about $8 billion into the airline through a combination of capital increase, issue of convertible bonds and new debt.

An auction schedule to sell shares in Citgo Petroleum's parent company, which could force a breakup of the Venezuela-owned U.S. oil refiner, was approved by a U.S. federal judge and filed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. U.S. District Judge Leonard P. Stark's order sets bidding and sales procedures, hiring of investment banker Evercore Group and directs an approach to the U.S. Treasury Department to seek a decision on any share sale. The Treasury has protected Citgo from creditors by previously not allowing transactions.

Venezuela’s creditors welcomed its potential rapprochement with the U.S. but still face risks and uncertainties in collecting from the South American country’s bankrupt government as its relations with Washington, D.C.'s thaw, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A rollback of U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil points a way to resolving the country’s huge foreign debt obligations, but offers no immediate fix for its longstanding default, according to sanctions experts and other people close to its top external creditors.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will propose changes for the World Bank and regional development banks Thursday, pushing them to move beyond country-specific loans to address global threats and speed the flow of private capital to poor and emerging economies, Bloomberg News reported. “The evolution of these banks will require changes to incentives, operating models and uses of the banks’ financial resources,” Yellen plans to say in a speech she’s scheduled to deliver in Washington at the Center for Global Development think tank. Portions of the remarks were seen by Bloomberg News.

The Biden administration is preparing to scale down sanctions on Venezuela’s authoritarian regime to allow Chevron Corp. to resume pumping oil there, paving the way for a potential reopening of U.S. and European markets to oil exports from Venezuela, the Wall Street Journal reported. In exchange for the significant sanctions relief, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would resume long-suspended talks with the country’s opposition to discuss conditions needed to hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024, the people said.

The commercial hub of Delaware is blocking startup ventures with past ties to Russia from maintaining their corporate standing in the state, ensnaring some tech firms that say they have little or no current connection to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported.