US court approves Aeroméxico’s $1bn financing deal

Judge Shelley C Chapman of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the USD1 billion debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing deal put forward by Aeroméxico (AM, México City Int’l), enabling the carrier to immediately draw the first tranche of loans. The airline said in a stock market filing that it had already drawn down USD100 million in loans available under the first tranche in September. The approval of the DIP financing releases a second sum, also USD100 million. The second tranche of the financing could amount to a total of USD800 million. The final approval of the DIP financing was a precondition for Aeroméxico to initially be able to draw USD175 million under this tranche with the remaining sum available in increments of at least USD100 million per draw. Aeroméxico said it was planning to draw the remainder of the first tranche and the initial part of the second tranche in a single step. “The final approval of the DIP Facility by the Chapter 11 Court is a key milestone in the ongoing restructuring process for Aeroméxico, which will provide us with certainty accessing liquidity to continue meeting our ongoing obligations in an orderly fashion. The future exercise of the additional funding under the DIP Facility will continue supporting our operations during our voluntary restructuring process,” Chief Executive Andrés Conesa said. The DIP financing is provided by a group of lenders led by Apollo Global Management.