LATAM Airlines Group has secured “sufficient support” from a majority of its unsecured creditors for its restructuring plan to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it said in a statement on May 6.
Around 65% of its lower-ranking voting creditors in “impaired classes” backed the plan, or 82% when speaking about the amount in dollars.
LATAM said it had “continued to engage in extensive negotiations and mediation” in recent months and that it “remains confident that the plan represents an equitable outcome with consideration to all stakeholders.”
The results do not yet include lenders - the holders of so-called RCF claims - who can choose between two treatments according to whether or not they provide further financing commitments. They have until May 10 to submit their votes.
After that, a confirmation hearing is set to take place on May 17 and 18 in which the US Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York will evaluate the plan - a step LATAM called “the last milestone of the bankruptcy process in the United States.” The group “continues to target completion of the process and emergence from Chapter 11 in the second half of 2022,” it concluded.
LATAM Airlines Group along with its affiliates in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and the United States has stressed that, if confirmed, its Chapter 11 bankruptcy exit plan - in which it hopes to raise USD5.4 billion - will “infuse new funds into the group through a mix of equity, convertible notes, and debt, and would strengthen its balance sheet, liquidity, and capital structure.”
However, it still has to convince dissenting stakeholders. On May 4, Reuters revealed that a committee representing junior creditors had filed an objection to the plan in court, accusing LATAM of conducting “a fundamentally flawed process” that violates bankruptcy law by giving some shareholders, including Delta Air Lines and Qatar Airways, beneficial treatment such as discounted equity options and “an outsized role” in the South American group’s corporate governance.
Objections to the plan have also been expressed by a Chilean bank representing local bondholders as well as by the United States Trustee Program, the US Department of Justice watchdog overseeing bankruptcy proceedings.
