LATAM Airlines Group SA (LTM.SN), the biggest air transport group in Latin America, on Monday requested a bankruptcy judge to authorize $2.75 billion in new loans to finance the company’s exit from Chapter 11.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Garrity in Manhattan will assess the request during a court hearing on June 23.
LATAM, which has operating units in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Colombia, says it has commitments for $2.75 billion in loans from Goldman Sachs Lending Partners LLC, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank Plc, BNP Paribas Securities Corp and Natixis, with a further $1.17 billion agreement to refinance and its extend current bankruptcy loan.
Roberto Alvo, LATAM Airlines Chief Executive, said in a press release on June 11:
“This commitment secures us the full amount of financing required to complete our restructuring plan and, very importantly, with a degree of flexibility that allows us to optimize existing market conditions.”
Besides the judge authorizing the exit loans, LATAM is waiting for Garrity’s decision on whether to approve its overall shake-up plan.
LATAM needs to obtain its exit loans before recovering from bankruptcy and proceeding to gather funds through a post-bankruptcy $800 million equity offering, according to court documents.
Buy Crypto NowBorn in 2012 from the merger of Chile’s LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, LATAM was among the three leading Latin American airlines to request Chapter 11 protection in New York two years ago amid the economic fallout of the pandemic. The other two, Colombia’s Avianca SA (AVT_p.CN) and Mexico’s Grupo Aeromexico (AEROMEX.MX), have both recovered from bankruptcy in the last six months.
