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Creditors of distressed Brazilian retailer Americanas SA approved a restructuring plan to overhaul 50 billion reais ($10.3 billion) of debt in a key step to applying a recovery plan nearly a year after its sudden implosion due to a multi-year fraud, Bloomberg News reported. With more than 97% of banks, bondholders and suppliers represented at the virtual meeting, the creditors gave the company the green light to proceed with the plan that envisions a capital injection of 24 billion reais in 2024 and recovery rates close to 30%. The stock gained as much as 7.8% in Sao Paulo trading to 0.97 reais a share. Brazil’s wealthiest and most iconic businessmen billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Sicupira and Marcel Telles are the largest shareholders of Americanas and have agreed to inject 12 billion reais into the company as part of the recovery plan. They’ve already put up 1.5 billion reais as part of debtor-in-possession financing and will disburse another 3.5 billion reais shortly after the plan’s approval, chief financial officer Camille Loyo Faria said in the assembly on Tuesday.

Insolvent European property company Signa is holding talks to potentially sell its stake in New York's Chrysler Building and is shedding its private jet, its administrator said on Tuesday, a significant development in the salvaging of founder Rene Benko's real estate empire, Reuters reported. The efforts, announced to Signa's creditors in Vienna, mark a first update by the court-appointed insolvency administrator on plans for Signa, the biggest casualty so far of Europe's property crisis. Insolvent European property company Signa is holding talks to potentially sell its stake in New York's Chrysler Building and is shedding its private jet, its administrator said on Tuesday, a significant development in the salvaging of founder Rene Benko's real estate empire. The efforts, announced to Signa's creditors in Vienna, mark a first update by the court-appointed insolvency administrator on plans for Signa, the biggest casualty so far of Europe's property crisis.

Corporate bankruptcies are increasing at double-digit rates in most advanced economies as borrowing costs rise and governments unwind pandemic-era measures to support business worth trillions of dollars, the Financial Times reported. Following a decade of decline the number of U.S. corporate bankruptcies rose 30 per cent in the 12 months to September compared with the year-ago period, according to courts data. Germany, the EU’s largest economy, said bankruptcies rose 25 per cent from January to September compared with the year-ago period. Since June, monthly “double-digit growth rates have been consistently observed compared to the previous year”, the country’s statistical office Destatis said on Tuesday. Across the bloc, corporate insolvencies rose 13 per cent year on year in the nine months to September to reach their highest level in eight years, according to Eurostat. Higher interest rates, along with the collapse of zombie companies that had survived on COVID-era government support, have fuelled the trend, according to Neil Shearing, chief economist at Capital Economics. Shearing cited “the cost of debt servicing” and “the rollback of pandemic support” as well as “high energy bills, particularly in energy-intensive sectors”. The industries suffering the most from the increased insolvency rates included transportation and hospitality, analysts said. Businesses weathered the precipitous downturns triggered by the pandemic thanks to massive government support schemes for companies and households that amounted to more than $10tn, according to IMF estimates for 2020 and the first four months of 2021. But since then the packages have been largely withdrawn.

Mercon Coffee Corp., the bankrupt global coffee trader, must try to negotiate a cheaper way to fund its restructuring case after a U.S. judge rejected a proposed loan from Coöperatieve Rabobank, Bloomberg News reported. Rabobank had agreed to loan Mercon as much as $40 million that would pay about 15% interest, plus an upfront fee of 3% on part of the debt and the payment of $3.8 million in expenses, according to court documents and Bankruptcy Judge Michael E. Wiles. The loan also included provisions that made it likely Mercon would be forced to liquidate instead of being bought or reorganized, Wiles said. “On the whole I don’t think that arrangement is appropriate,” Wiles said during in the company’s first court hearing, which was held by telephone. “It is far too generous.” Mercon will try to negotiate a new deal with Rabobank and present it to Wiles in the next few days, company attorney Paul Keenan said. The company and Rabobank had argued it needed the loan just in case the price of coffee dropped so much that Mercon needed to make multi-million margin calls. The company has at least $12 million in cash in the bank, Keenan said. If the company can come to new terms with Rabobank, it may ask the judge to approve the loan during a rare, weekend court hearing, Keenan said. The company’s cash forecast showed Mercon won’t need any more money for at least the next few weeks, Daniel Rudewicz, a lawyer with the U.S. Trustee said during the hearing. That means the company may not need to borrow any money, Rudewicz said.