%1

Chile's LATAM Airlines Group SA said on Friday that it has filed a reorganization plan, proposing an $8.19 billion infusion of capital into the group, in a bid to exit its chapter 11 protection, Reuters reported. The financing proposal will include a mix of new equity, convertible notes and debt, the group said in a statement, adding that it intends to launch an $800 million equity rights offering to shareholders, upon confirmation of the plan. "While our process is not yet over, we have reached a critical milestone in the path to a stronger financial future," said Roberto Alvo, chief executive of the largest airline in Latin America. Recently, LATAM said it received several offers to fund the exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, each of which are worth more than $5 billion. The group filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York in May 2020 as world travel came to a halt amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon emerging from chapter 11, LATAM expects to have total debt of about $7.26 billion and liquidity of about $2.67 billion, the company said in the statement. The Santiago-based company reported losses of some $692 million in the third quarter, as the indebted company was still battling challenges from the pandemic. The restructuring plan is accompanied by a support agreement with creditor group Parent Ad Hoc Group and some LATAM shareholders.

Valley Hospice of Arizona, a Mesa-based end-of-life care facility, has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection with at least $2.49 million owed to scores of creditors, ABC15.com reported. Valley Hospice on Nov. 12 declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which is the most common type of bankruptcy used to reorganize a failing business. This business is not connected to Hospice of the Valley, a larger chain of health care centers in the area. Documents on file with U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona show that the company owes money to 77 creditors, many of which are unsecured. Valley Hospice owes at least $2.4 million to these unsecured creditors, but it filed under subchapter V of chapter 11, meaning it has less than $7.5 million in total debts owed.

The Labor Department reported on Wednesday that initial unemployment claims tumbled last week to their lowest point since 1969, the New York Times reported. New filings for state benefits totaled 199,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis, a decline of 71,000 from the previous week. The drop marks a milestone in the economy’s recovery from the pandemic. Weekly claims peaked at more than six million in April 2020 as the coronavirus forced businesses and consumers alike to shut down. As recently as early January, amid a winter resurgence of the coronavirus, new state claims exceeded 900,000 in one week. Filing for unemployment benefits has come down sharply since then, but remained well above prepandemic levels until very recently. Despite a summer lull, the economy has been showing signs of life lately. Employers added 531,000 jobs in October, and most economists expect growth to pick up in the final quarter of the year, boosted by healthy consumer spending. In a separate report on Wednesday, the Commerce Department said that household spending rose 1.3 percent in October, while personal income jumped 0.5 percent, before adjusting for inflation. It also showed that prices climbed by 5 percent in the 12 months through October.

U.S. shoppers spent more time and money at bricks-and-mortar stores over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend than the same period last year, though foot traffic remained below pre-pandemic levels, the Wall Street Journal reported. The rebound marks a reversal from 2020 when the pandemic accelerated a yearslong shift of holiday spending occurring online at the expense of in-store shopping. It also shows retailers were able to secure spending on the key Black Friday selling day, analysts say, even though discounts weren’t as prevalent this year and they spent weeks nudging customers to shop earlier in the season. RetailNext, a firm that tracks shopper counts in thousands of stores with cameras and sensors, said store traffic rose 61% this Black Friday compared with last year but was down 27% from 2019. Sensormatic Solutions, another firm that tracks store traffic, said Black Friday traffic rose 48% from last year, but was 28% lower than in 2019. The Thanksgiving holiday weekend was also the first time in years that online retail sales didn’t increase from the prior year, according to some industry estimates. Online Black Friday sales fell to $8.9 billion from $9 billion last year, according to Adobe Inc., while Thanksgiving Day online sales were roughly flat at $5.1 billion, the first time sales didn’t increase since Adobe started tracking the figures in 2012.

A congressional subcommittee aimed at investigating financial fraud during the pandemic broadened its probe into online lending this week to include two of the most prominent processors of coronavirus assistance, USA Today reported. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent letters to Blueacorn and Womply yesterday requesting information about fraud prevention. Both emerged as major players that fused tech and financing to speed up lending through the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. Womply had no lending experience before COVID-19 and Blueacorn did not exist, yet together the companies captured more than $3 billion in fees – eclipsing their direct competitors. The startups are not banks but worked as middlemen, marketing to struggling businesses and quickly approving loans with partner banks, backed by the Small Business Administration. The companies make their money through a government-paid fee for facilitating the loans. “Unfortunately, many of these fees may have been earned by processing fraudulent or ineligible loan applications,” Clyburn wrote in his letter requesting a trove of internal compliance documents, including “emails, chat room logs and transcripts, direct electronic messages and minutes” that discussed financial crimes. Womply worked with 17 lenders and processed 1.4 million loans totaling more than $20 billion of the government’s $800 billion program. Blueacorn processed at least $14 billion in loans, according to Clyburn.

The COVID-19 pandemic was supposed to deliver a knockout punch to department stores and specialty retailers. Instead, many of them are bouncing back healthier, the Wall Street Journal reported. Profits are exceeding 2019 levels at companies ranging from Macy’s Inc. M -2.71% to Ralph Lauren Corp. RL 2.36% Dozens of chains restructured through bankruptcy or worked to shed money-losing locations and now have stronger balance sheets. Even the supply-chain problems bedeviling companies have produced a silver lining: it has helped retailers break a cycle — at least temporarily — of overbuying and discounting that has eroded profits for decades, executives and analysts said. “We were carrying too much inventory for years,” Macy’s Chief Executive Officer Jeff Gennette said Thursday. “Through the pandemic, our opportunity to work through our stock and get in line with demand is a benefit we’ll hold on to going forward.” He said stocking fewer goods translates into less cluttered stores, which is a better experience for customers, and results in more full-priced sales. “It’s not pile it high and let it fly anymore,” Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of Coach parent Tapestry Inc. said last week, referring to an industry maxim about selling large quantities of goods at low prices. Ms. Crevoiserat said Tapestry had begun reducing inventory even before the pandemic. “We’re not competing on price anymore,” she said.

AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. has surged almost 20-fold this year after thousands of retail investors piled in to defend the stock against short sellers looking to profit from its decline. “You buy. You hold,” read a recent tweet with dozens of likes. Top management has taken a different tack, Bloomberg News reported. Executives and board members at the movie theater chain have unloaded shares worth more than $70 million in 2021 after selling a fraction of that amount in prior years, according to regulatory filings. Chief Executive Officer Adam Aron became the biggest seller of that group this month when he sold stock worth more than $25 million, saying it was prudent for estate-planning purposes. None have made purchases. Many of the stock sales, including Aron’s, were pre-planned. A spokesman for Leawood, Kansas-based AMC, declined to comment. AMC was struggling financially for years even before the pandemic pummeled the theater business in 2020, causing a sharp drop-off in revenue from which the industry still hasn’t recovered. But in January, fired-up retail traders rushed in, driving up the share price and helping rescue AMC from the brink of bankruptcy.