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Thomas Cook Group Plc has filed for chapter 15 protection in the U.S. as part of a broader debt restructuring for the U.K. travel agent, Bloomberg News reported. The company’s chapter 15 petition was filed in the Southern District of New York, court papers dated Sept. 16 show. Law firm Latham & Watkins is representing the company, according to the documents. The travel agent’s creditors are set to vote on Sept. 27 on a proposed scheme of arrangement, a U.K. court procedure that will allow Chinese investor Fosun Tourism Group to lead a planned rescue of the company. Thomas Cook proposed to swap 1.67 billion pounds ($2.07 billion) of bank debt and bonds for 15% of the equity and at least 81 million pounds of new subordinated notes, which will pay interest with more debt, according to the documents. After the injection of at least 900 million pounds of new money, Fosun will hold 75 percent of the shares of the tour operator arm and up to 25 percent of the airline.

Global Cloud Xchange filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday after reaching a deal with lenders that will erase $150 million in debt and hands control of the telecommunications company to its senior bondholders, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company, a subsidiary of India’s Reliance Communications also known as GCX, said that more than 75 percent committed to back the debt-for-equity swap, which will be completed through a prepackaged chapter 11 plan in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The chapter 11 filing comes after the company said it had struck a forbearance agreement in July with bondholders over the restructuring of $350 million in bonds issued by GCX Ltd.

Odebrecht’s construction unit OEC has signed an agreement with bondholders to restructure its debt at a 55 percent discount, cutting it from $3.2 billion to $1.4 billion, Reuters reported. The bonds, which matured and were unpaid earlier this year, will have new 4-1/2-year maturities. The agreement concludes the out-of-court restructuring of Odebrecht’s construction unit. Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico first reported on the signing of the agreement. The Odebrecht conglomerate was one of the main targets in Brazil’s widest-ever corruption probe and filed for bankruptcy protection in June.

Argentina’s bonds extended declines as S&P Global Ratings cut the South American nation’s foreign- and local-currency credit ratings to “selective default” after it said it would delay payments on short-term local debt, Bloomberg News reported. The government will postpone $7 billion of payments on short-term local notes held by institutional investors this year and will seek the “voluntary reprofiling“ of $50 billion of longer-term debt, Economy Minister Hernan Lacunza said on Wednesday. It will also start talks over repayments on $44 billion it has received from the IMF. While the plan could relieve short-term pressures, it raises the prospect of defaults further down the line, according to Credit Agricole SA. Argentina’s peso and bonds have tumbled after opposition leader Alberto Fernandez routed President Mauricio Macri, a market favorite, in an Aug. 11 primary vote. The peso is down more than 20 percent since then and bonds have hit record lows, with investors pricing in an over 90 percent chance of default in the next five years.

Corporate insolvencies are expected to rise globally for the first time in 10 years, with North America leading the trend, due to a more challenging economic environment and heightened uncertainty surrounding trade policy, according to a new research report, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The first annual upturn in corporate insolvencies in advanced markets since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 comes as the worldwide economy slows down, business investment growth remains subdued and financing risks rise due to ongoing trade tensions, according to a report released yesterday by Dutch trade finance insurer Atradius NV. Business failures globally are expected to grow 2.8 percent this year and increase slightly again by 1.2 percent in 2020, Atradius said. The higher forecast for corporate insolvencies is primarily due to worse-than-expected insolvency developments in North America. Atradius has “a built-in warning system” that requires its insurance customers to report to the company late payments of more than 60 to 90 days from their buyers of services or commodities, said David Huey, president and regional director of U.S., Canada and Mexico for Atradius. The region is forecast to see the highest insolvency growth among all regions, with a 3.2 percent increase in 2019 and 1.7 percent in 2020 as economic momentum dwindles and companies increasingly face the costs of rising trade tensions, Atradius said in the report.

The Brazilian construction conglomerate filed for chapter 15 bankruptcy, seeking U.S. recognition of the largest-ever bankruptcy in Latin America, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Brazil’s Odebrecht SA has filed for bankruptcy protection in New York yesterday, adding a U.S. dimension to the construction conglomerate’s efforts to restructure more than $25 billion of debt. In June, the company filed for bankruptcy in Brazil after becoming embroiled in a regional corruption probe. Odebrecht is known for having built the American Airlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat, and a portion of Miami International Airport. The company has also built a number of roads, bridges, and interchanges in Florida, North Carolina, Texas, and California. Its U.S. website lists four currently active U.S. projects: two roadway projects and two logistics projects in the Miami area. In 2016, the company admitted to paying almost $800 million in bribes to win domestic contracts, as part of a corruption scandal that has brought down a host of Brazil’s business and political elite.

Maxcom Telecomunicaciones, S.A.B. de C.V., the Mexico City-based company that builds last-mile connections to businesses and consumers, yesterday filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. with a deal in hand for a debt swap with bondholders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Erik González Laureano, chief financial officer of the Mexico City-based company, said in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York that 84.75 percent of bondholders in number and 66.73 percent in principal amount have voted to approve the debt swap. Maxcom, which has been losing money for years, skipped an interest payment in June to bondholders owed $103 million and at the same time launched a debt swap offer that pushes out the maturity on the notes to 2024. Under the plan, the bondholders will exchange their old notes for $56.9 million in senior bonds, about $10.3 million in junior payment-in-kind notes and cash. Maxcom launched the exchange offer because it needs more cash to invest in operations and to expand its network, but its old bond indenture prohibited the company from incurring additional indebtedness, González Laureano said.