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A U.S. bankruptcy judge yesterday approved the $62 million sale of Limetree Bay refinery to a Jamaican oil storage company that intends to restart the refinery, Reuters reported. Private equity investors had poured $4.1 billion into reviving the aging U.S. Virgin Islands facility, which was shut down by U.S. environmental regulators after a botched restart earlier this year. West Indies Petroleum, along with Port Hamilton Refining and Transportation, was named the winning bidder on Saturday by Limetree after a second auction was conducted over the weekend. If the company does not complete the sale in January, the refinery can be purchased by backup bidder St. Croix Energy LLLP, who raised their bid from $20 million to $57 million last weekend. At the refiner's request, Judge David Jones reopened the auction in early December because the chief executive officer of West Indies Petroleum had a medical emergency prior to the first auction. St. Croix Energy objected to the second auction being held. Both West Indies Petroleum and St. Croix Energy want to restart the refinery, which is currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice after releases of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide during a restart in early 2021 sickened St. Croix residents. The Environmental Protection Agency filed a limited objection on Sunday in order to establish "sale order language" with West Indies Petroleum establishing environmental liability in the refinery's consent decree. The United States also sued Limetree Bay in July seeking injunctive relief under the Clean Air Act that includes requiring the refinery to "eliminate any imminent and substantial endangerment to human health, welfare, and the environment prior to restart of refinery operations."

An Aeromexico creditor on Monday objected to the Mexican airline's restructuring plan to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy, saying the proposal would unfairly benefit majority shareholder Delta Air Lines Inc., Reuters reported. Invictus Global Management said in a public letter to Delta's board of directors that it opposed the plan put forward by Aeromexico. Aeromexico last week said that an unnamed third party would make a tender offer valuing its outstanding shares at a fraction of their previous market price as part of its efforts to emerge from bankruptcy. Delta's stake would be diluted to 20%, while Apollo Global Management, a fund that often invests in bankrupt companies, would become Aeromexico's biggest shareholder. "Daylight needs to shine on the actions and decisions that could position you to make hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of other stakeholders, including the many who stand to be economically crushed under the plan preferred by Delta and Apollo," said the letter, signed by Invictus partner Cindy Chen Delano. It added that the proposal included "seemingly egregious financial terms that defy decades of bankruptcy precedent." Invictus is a Delta shareholder as well as a sizeable creditor of Aeromexico, it said.

Philippine Airlines Inc. won court approval for its reorganisation plan, paving the way for the carrier to exit bankruptcy, cut $2 billion in debt and revive its fortunes after a slump in international travel due to the pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman in Manhattan said on Friday that she would approve the chapter 11 plan after unsecured creditors voted to back the proposal. The reorganization didn’t face any major opposition from debt holders. "This case is a model for what can be accomplished in chapter 11,” Chapman said. "You’ve achieved overwhelming consensus.” The company will try implement the plan and exit bankruptcy by the end of the year, if it is able to get approval from securities regulators in the Philippines, a lawyer for the airline said during the court hearing on Friday. The flagship carrier, majority owned by billionaire Lucio Tan, is one of several to enter debt restructuring in the U.S., which companies often consider a preferred location. Aeromexico and Colombia’s Avianca Holdings sought court protection in New York last year. Philippine Airlines already got a green light to access $505 million worth of equity and debt financing to help it meet its obligations. As part of the turnaround, it plans to reduce the size of its fleet.

One of the world’s largest aircraft leasing company filed for chapter 11 as it seeks to restructure its finances for the second time since the beginning of the pandemic. Denmark-based Nordic Aviation Capital A/S sought bankruptcy protection to overhaul about $6 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. On Sept. 24, the company reached an agreement in principle with creditors to fix its balance sheet. The company listed both assets and debt of between $1 billion and $10 billion, according to court papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond, Virginia. The restructuring framework includes the conversion of “a substantial amount of the group’s debt into equity,” a $300 million equity rights offering and a $200 million revolving credit facility, the company said. Silver Point Capital and Sculptor Capital Management are set to take control of the company as part of the deal, people familiar with the matter said on Sept. 30.

Latam Airlines Group SA’s official low-ranking creditor group is unhappy with the Chilean carrier’s bankruptcy exit proposal, arguing a sale to rival Azul SA could leave its members much better off, Bloomberg News reported. In court papers filed on Wednesday, Santiago-based Latam’s unsecured creditor committee said the airline’s current reorganization plan is so unfair that it can’t win court approval. It flouts U.S. bankruptcy rules by favoring some evenly-ranked creditors over others and giving value to shareholders that don’t deserve it, lawyers for the group wrote. “Rather than use the past eighteen months to negotiate and prepare a value-maximizing plan that treats all constituents fairly and in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code, the Debtors have used their exclusive opportunity to negotiate an unconfirmable insider deal at the expense of non-preferred creditors,” lawyers from the Dechert firm wrote on behalf of unsecured creditors. Under the current proposal, Latam locked arms with key shareholders — Delta Air Lines Inc., Qatar Airways and Chile’s Cueto family — and a major creditor group on a deal that would raise about $5 billion and slash its debt load. Sixth Street Partners, Sculptor Capital and SVPGlobal are leading the creditor group that has agreed to backstop the plan. The plan would result in creditors taking control of the company, while existing shareholders could retain a sizable ownership stake. That’s unusual in U.S. bankruptcy — stockholders are last in line to be repaid — but Latam’s deal would smooth over potentially thorny Chilean securities law issues.

A Canadian court ordered Cineworld Group PLC to pay 1.29 billion Canadian dollars, equivalent to about $1 billion, in damages for walking away from a merger agreement with Cineplex Inc. after the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the movie-theater industry world-wide, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. An Ontario judge rejected arguments by U.K.-based Cineworld that Canada-based Cineplex violated the terms of a planned merger between the two companies when it took steps to conserve cash by deferring payments to landlords, vendors and film studios after box offices shut down in the early days of COVID-19’s global spread. “Cineplex cannot be held in default…when it was prevented from conducting its normal day-to-day operations by government mandate,” said Justice Barbara Conway of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in her ruling on Tuesday. Cineworld, which operates the Regal cinema chain in the U.S., said it would appeal the decision and “does not expect damages to be payable whilst any appeal is ongoing.” It reported about $450 million in cash holdings as of June and previously said it expected “no material liability” to arise from the Cineplex lawsuit. The U.K.-based company warned earlier this year there was doubt about its viability as a business after it posted a $3 billion loss for 2020 because of the pandemic’s impact. Cineplex had sought US$2.2 billion in damages from Cineworld for backing out of the acquisition.

Delta Air Lines Inc. will invest $1.2 billion in partner carriers Virgin Atlantic, Aeromexico and Latam Airlines as the U.S. airline positions itself to capitalize on a rebound in international travel, Bloomberg News reported. Delta aims to build a 20% equity stake in Grupo Aeromexico SAB and a 10% position in Latam Airlines Group SA, according to a statement Monday. The U.S. company will provide fresh financing to Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. and maintain its 49% equity stake. "As international travel demand returns, the connectivity, relevance and breadth of Delta’s global network with its partners remains critical,” the carrier said in the statement. “With new widebody aircraft on the way, record hiring, and significant investments in international readiness, Delta is positioned to lead the industry through the ongoing recovery.” The investment underscores the importance of international travel after the industry struggled through a sharp slowdown during the pandemic. Delta recently expanded its marketing partnership with Latam and has supported the bankruptcy reorganization of Aeromexico following a cooperation agreement signed in 2017. Atlanta-based Delta said its investments in Air France-KLM, Korean Air and China Eastern won’t change. Shares of the carrier fell as much as 4.3% in New York.