Mexico’s Interjet seeks last-gasp revamp for $1.25b debt

The new management of Mexican airline Interjet has hired a restructuring firm to help overcome its $1.25b of inherited debt as the company looks to restart operations. The airline, now controlled by businessman Alejandro del Valle, has brought on Mexico City-based Argoss Partners to help resolve issues with creditors via a prepackaged bankruptcy and obtain debtor-in-possession financing. Interjet plans to submit a restructuring plan to Mexico’s bankruptcy regulator for review in the coming weeks. Interjet, which halted flights in December, faces numerous hurdles to restarting operations, from unpaid taxes and back salaries to a lack of airplanes -- lessors have repossessed most of the company’s jets except for a handful of Russian Sukhois that have been cannibalized for parts. “We want a prepackaged bankruptcy and to work out the main issues with creditors,” said Carlos Ortiz-Canavate, a partner at Argoss. Another partner, Igor Marzo, said the new Interjet may be much smaller in size and scope than it was previously, when it operated flights across Mexico and the Americas. An important part of Interjet’s debt, which is being examined by the company’s new management, stems from taxes that weren’t paid to the Mexican government in the years before it changed ownership. Ortiz-Canavate said that while Del Valle was aware that money was owed when he bought the company, he was not thoroughly informed about the actual tax “tangle” dragging on Interjet. He said that at least three tax remediation proposals have been submitted to Mexico’s tax authority but have been rejected. The company will continue talks to seek a solution.<br/>