Avianca Holdings SA plans to raise $1.8 billion to repay debt and provide new financing as the Colombian airline eyes an exit from the bankruptcy reorganization it was forced into last year during the pandemic-driven travel collapse, Bloomberg News reported. The air carrier retained Seabury Securities LLC to help raise the exit financing, likely a combination of debt and equity, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. Avianca said it will repay $1.4 billion in bankruptcy loans and have around $1 billion in liquidity when it emerges from the reorganization at some point this year.

Powered by the U.S. and China, the global economy is set to make a stunning comeback this year from its deepest contraction since the Great Depression, economists say. For many developing countries, though, 2021 is shaping up to look a lot like 2020, with the pandemic still raging and poverty deepening, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Here in Washington, D.C., people are literally talking about the Roaring 20s and, you know, letting the doors fly off the U.S. economy,” said Geoffrey Okamoto, the International Monetary Fund’s first deputy managing director.

Offshore drilling rig contractor Seadrill has asked creditors to write off more than 85% of its debts in exchange for a 99% stake in the reorganized company, a court filing showed, Reuters reported. The Oslo-listed firm controlled by Norwegian-born billionaire John Fredriksen in February filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., the second time it has done so in four years.

Nomura and Credit Suisse warned on Monday they were facing big losses after a U.S. hedge fund, named by sources as Archegos Capital, defaulted on margin calls, putting investors on edge about who else had been caught out, Reuters reported. Losses at Archegos Capital Management, run by former Tiger Asia manager Bill Hwang, had triggered a fire sale of stocks on Friday. Nomura said it faced a possible $2 billion loss due to transactions with a U.S.

Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd agreed on Sunday to acquire Kansas City Southern in a $25 billion cash-and-stock deal to create the first railway spanning the United States, Mexico and Canada, standing to benefit from a pick-up in trade, Reuters reported. It would be the largest ever combination of North American railways by transaction value. It comes amid a recovery in supply chains that were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and follows the ratification of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) last year that removed the threat of trade tensions that had escalated under former U.S.

Canada’s Just Energy said on Tuesday it had applied to voluntarily delist its shares from the Toronto Stock Exchange after the electricity and gas provider filed for bankruptcy last week, Reuters reported. On March 9, the company filed for creditor protection in Canada and said it planned to do the same in the United States due to massive costs from the Texas deep freeze. It became the second Texas electricity company to take that step in the face of extraordinary electricity charges during the cold snap.

Cryptocurrency investment platform Cred Inc. unwittingly put a convicted financial criminal identified by the U.K. as a fugitive in charge of raising and deploying the firm’s capital before its collapse into bankruptcy, a court-appointed examiner said, the Wall Street Journal reported. An examiner’s report filed Monday in the U.S.

Electricity and gas provider Just Energy Group Inc said it filed for creditor protection in Canada and plans to do the same in the United States, citing massive costs from the Texas deep freeze last month, Reuters reported. It became the second Texas electricity company to take the step in the face of extraordinary electricity charges during the cold snap. Last week, Texas’ largest and oldest electric power cooperative, Brazos Electric Power Cooperative Inc, filed for bankruptcy protection in Houston, citing a disputed $1.8 billion debt to the state’s grid operator.

The Biden administration moved on Monday to reimpose financial sanctions on an Israeli mining executive who had turned to a team of lobbyists to have the measures eased during President Donald J. Trump’s final days in office, the New York Times reported.