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Airline Grupo Aeromexico SAB received a proposal to emerge from bankruptcy by having lead lender Apollo Global Management Inc. convert some debt into equity. A previous exit package didn’t include the U.S. firm getting a stake, Bloomberg News reported. The carrier, which filed for chapter 11 in 2020 after the pandemic decreased travel, said that a group of new and existing creditors and investors will repay the rest of the loan held by Apollo, which led the carrier’s debtor-in-possession financing. Amounts were not disclosed. Apollo orchestrated a $1 billion rescue plan of the struggling airline last year. The second tranche of the loan, worth $800 million, gave the creditors the option to receive shares in the restructured company. Aeromexico’s largest shareholder, Delta Air Lines Inc., supports the plan and has already said it will acquire $185 million of that tranche. Foreign ownership requirements will be complied through a group of long-term Mexican investors, Aeromexico said. The company’s board has approved the plan, and a revised version will be filed before a federal bankruptcy court in New York. The hearing to confirm the plan will be set by the court at a later date. The new plan will replace one filed on Oct. 1 that included $1.2 billion in equity and as much as $537.5 million in new debt. However, that deal didn’t include Apollo converting any debt into equity. That plan estimated Aeromexico to be worth $5.4 billion.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved Colombian airliner Avianca's reorganization plan, Avianca said on Tuesday, which will allow the company to complete its chapter 11 bankruptcy process before the end of the year, Reuters reported. Avianca, along with rival Chile's LATAM Airlines, were the two largest carriers in the region before the coronavirus pandemic, but both were sent into bankruptcy restructuring when the virus upended air travel, amid especially strict restrictions in Latin America. Avianca had already posted several years of losses before the pandemic began, and went through a boardroom coup in 2019 led by United Airlines. "The airline expects to successfully complete that process and emerge from chapter 11 before the end of the year as a financially stronger and more efficient airline," the company said in a statement. Avianca will have significantly less debt and more than $1 billion in liquidity when it finishes the bankruptcy process, the statement said.

Entities linked to 245 Park Avenue, a Manhattan skyscraper tied to China’s HNA Group Co., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware, court papers showed, Bloomberg News reported. The listed assets and liabilities are between $1 billion to $10 billion, the filing showed. Tax authorities in Chicago and New York City were listed as the two biggest creditors, where it owes more than $23 million in property taxes. The filing showed the company has enough funds for distribution to unsecured creditors. Three years ago, HNA listed the Manhattan property among the assets that it was putting up for sale as it marketed more than $40 billion of its holdings to cut its debt load. At the time, the building was valued by the company at $2.21 billion.

Offshore driller Seadrill Ltd. on Tuesday obtained court approval for its reorganization plan, clearing the way for it to emerge from bankruptcy, Reuters reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston signed off on the plan during a virtual hearing. Under the plan, creditors will exchange $4.9 billion in debt for equity in the company. Seadrill will also raise $350 million in new financing. Seadrill filed its second bankruptcy since 2017 in February with $5.6 billion in secured debt, blaming its second trip to chapter 11 on the sustained downturn in the oil and gas market and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company expects to exit bankruptcy in about 60 days.

Mexico's Grupo Posadas has filed for chapter 11 protection in a U.S. court, the hotel chain said yesterday, after its business was hit by the global coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. The pre-packaged chapter 11, filed in the Southern District of New York, is expected to be complete in about 60 days, Posadas, one of Mexico's biggest hotel groups, said in a statement to the Mexican stock exchange. The debt restructuring, first announced two months ago, is part of Posadas's efforts to "maximize our financial flexibility and better manage the challenges related to COVID-19," chief executive Jose Carlos Azcarraga said in the statement. The company said its hotels will continue to operate without interruption.

Avianca Holdings SA asked a judge for permission to exit bankruptcy under a plan that the airline says will eliminate about $3 billion in debt and preserve over 10,000 jobs, Bloomberg News reported. Latin America’s second-largest airline before the pandemic presented its restructuring plan at a hearing in New York Tuesday. If approved, the 102-year-old company is eyeing an exit from bankruptcy this year. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn appeared to side with the company when a handful of objectors claimed the proposal wrongly favored some creditors over others. Judge Glenn asked the objecting creditors to file court papers by Thursday evening listing facts related to their complaints. He did not say when he would decide whether to approve the plan. The company said it plans to exit bankruptcy soon after winning final court approval. “We remain focused on moving forward with this process as efficiently as possible,” Avianca said in an emailed statement. Under the plan, Avianca will roll over roughly $1.6 billion of loans it raised during the bankruptcy process and raise $200 million of new equity, according to a regulatory filing. Certain lenders and noteholders, including United Airlines; Kingsland Holdings, which is controlled by Salvadoran mogul Roberto Jose Kriete Avila; and Citadel LLC, the hedge fund founded by billionaire Ken Griffin, will get 72% of the airline’s equity in exchange for canceling more than $900 million of debt, according to court papers.

Latam Airlines Group’s chief executive wants to steer his company out of bankruptcy next year with a shrinking carbon footprint and lower costs that can help it grow in a travel market still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Roberto Alvo said that Latin America’s largest air carrier is making progress on a financing plan that it will submit to a judge next month, putting it on track to exit bankruptcy protection as soon as the first half of 2022. During the chapter 11 process, which it entered last May, the company retooled its fleet and slashed operating costs to compete with low-cost carriers. But Alvo, a two-decade company veteran who took over as CEO last April as the pandemic was upending air travel, is stressing its role as a corporate citizen, including its pledge to cut carbon emissions. Latam “will be financially much stronger than how it entered and very willing and able to take market opportunities to grow,” Alvo said in an interview in Bogota on the sidelines of an airline conference. “But most important is that the countries where we operate understand the company as an asset to society.” Carriers around the globe, including Latam, are vowing to eliminate carbon emissions on a net basis by 2050 as the industry aligns with the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming. Airlines have few options to reach the goal, at least in the short term, as production of more sustainable fuels remains limited.

Mexican steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico (AHMSA) confirmed on Thursday that it is exploring the possibility of filing for chapter 11 protection under U.S. law for its subsidiary Minera del Norte, Reuters reported. The unit had been hurt by state power utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE)’s decision to cancel coal supply contracts for power stations, AHMSA said in a statement, adding that a third of the mining operations were in the U.S.