LATAM requests further $500mn from DIP loan facility

LATAM Airlines Group has requested a second disbursement of USD500 million from the DIP credit agreement it maintains with its creditors under the framework of its Chapter 11 restructuring process, it said in an SEC filing on June 9. It said that due to the prolonged travel restrictions imposed by the various countries it operates in, as well as an “analysis of the company’s liquidity position,” its board of directors had agreed to make the second draw request. The funds should be available within ten business days. The money requested comes from a DIP loan agreement of USD2.45 billion that the company signed with its creditors in September 2020. LATAM has already received a USD1.15 billion debtor-in-possession loan under the deal, received last October. The group also said, in a separate statement on June 9, that it was seeking to extend until September the deadline to present its restructuring plan to judges at the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Under the bankruptcy protection process initiated in May 2020, the court had previously ordered the company to deliver its restructuring plan by the end of June 2021. Nevertheless, the group stressed that the extension request “does not modify” its intention to exit Chapter 11 by the end of this year. In addition on June 9, in a summary of its projected operating figures for June, LATAM claimed it was seeing “signs of recovery” and expected to raise capacity for the month to 36% of their pre-pandemic levels, which is “largely attributed to the progress of the vaccination rollout in the countries where LATAM operates and the resulting increase in demand.” It added: “All markets show projections higher than those of the previous month.” The 36% projection is an average of the planned capacity in LATAM’s individual markets, namely a 38% projected operation versus June 2019 in Brazil, 23% in Chile, 59% in Colombia, 39% in Ecuador, 38% in Peru, and 68% in the group’s cargo operations.