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(Reuters) -Grupo Aeroméxico is targeting a valuation of up to $2.92 billion in its initial public offering in the U.S., the Mexican airline said on Friday. Mexico City-based Aeroméxico and some of its existing shareholders are seeking up to $234.5 million by offering 11.7 million American Depositary Shares priced between $18 and $20 each. Mature companies often seek a return to public markets after a successful reorganization under bankruptcy. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Evercore are the joint lead book-running managers. Aeroméxico plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "AERO." (Reporting by Anuj T and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

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(Reuters) -Grupo Aeroméxico said on Friday it was targeting a valuation of up to $2.92 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, as the Mexican carrier looks to go public again after over two years. Mexico City-based Aeroméxico and some of its existing shareholders are seeking up to $234.5 million by offering 11.7 million American Depositary Shares priced between $18 and $20 each. Mature companies often seek a return to public markets after a successful reorganization under bankruptcy. Aeroméxico filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 with $2 billion in debt, as the pandemic hammered travel demand. Backed by alternative asset manager Apollo Global and U.S. carrier Delta, Aeroméxico has since bounced back after emerging from bankruptcy in 2022. Private investment fund PAR Investment Partners intends to purchase $25 million of Aeroméxico shares in a concurrent private placement at a per share price of 95% of the IPO price. Aeroméxico is one of the older names in the IPO pipeline, having publicly filed paperwork in May 2024. Chile-based LATAM Airlines returned to the New York Stock Exchange in July 2024 after a $456 million IPO. PUBLIC MARKETS RETURN Founded in 1934 as Aeronaves, the legacy airline was nationalized by the Mexican government in 1959. It started operating under the commercial name "Aeroméxico" in 1971. Aeroméxico was state-owned for decades until 2007, when an investor consortium led by Citigroup acquired it for about $250 million following a fierce bidding war against the Saba family. The full-service carrier initially went public in 2011 and traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV) until 2022, when it delisted as part of its bankruptcy restructuring. Aeroméxico, focused on business and leisure passengers, competes with low-cost carriers Volaris and Viva Aerobus. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Evercore are the joint lead book-running managers. Aeroméxico plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "AERO." (Reporting by Anuj T and Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas)

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By David Shepardson and Dan Catchpole WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing won approval on Friday to raise its 737 MAX production to 42 planes per month, the Federal Aviation Administration said, easing a 38-plane cap in place since January last year and boosting its efforts to shore up its finances and move past concerns over safety and quality. The FAA imposed the unprecedented production cap shortly after a 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 that was missing four key bolts in a door plug, causing a gaping hole to open in the fuselage at 16,000 feet (4,900 m). The incident revealed widespread production safety and quality lapses at Boeing. Increasing deliveries of the popular single-aisle airplane is critical to restoring Boeing's financial stability, following years of production disruptions and crises that have left it deep in debt and losing money. Planemakers receive the bulk of a customer's payment when they hand over an airplane.  The FAA said on Friday its safety inspectors "conducted extensive reviews of Boeing's production lines to ensure that this small production rate increase will be done safely." BOEING PLANS TO BEGIN BOOSTING PRODUCTION QUICKLY FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford called Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Friday to confirm the planemaker could raise the production rate to 42 planes, a person briefed on the matter said. Boeing plans to quickly begin boosting production accordingly, the source added. Workers at the company's Seattle-area factories have been preparing to increase the 737 production rate by adding equipment for greater capacity, two other sources familiar with the matter said. Boeing said it appreciated "the work by our team, our suppliers and the FAA to ensure we are prepared to increase production with safety and quality at the forefront." Boeing shares were up 1.2% in after-hours trading. Boeing has produced 737s at higher rates in the past but the supply chain is more stressed now. Forgings, castings, engines and even interiors have all caused supply chain headaches for planemakers in recent years, aerospace analyst Glenn McDonald said. Supply chain problems seem to be more sporadic and unpredictable than before the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were more systemic, he said, noting that a factory fire in February left Boeing scrambling to find new sources for specialized fasteners. "Boeing seems to be better prepared for this ramp up than they have been for previous ones," he said. Under enhanced FAA oversight, the company has taken a cautious approach to stabilizing and then increasing production. Boeing has built up substantial inventories of parts and materials as a buffer against supply chain bottlenecks.  It had $11 billion in raw materials stockpiled, according to its second quarter earnings filings. That compares with $6.4 billion in inventory in 2018, when it was producing more than 50 of the 737 jets a month. Boeing also has $53 billion in debt now, compared with about $12 billion in 2018. Wall Street analysts expect Boeing to lose money again this year but project a profit in 2026, which would mark Boeing's first profitable year since 2018. Last month, the FAA partially restored Boeing's authority to issue airworthiness certificates for new 737 MAX and 787 airplanes.  That authority had been revoked for individual MAX planes in 2019, following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, and for wide-body 787 airplanes in 2022, due to production quality issues. In September, the FAA proposed a $3.1 million fine against Boeing for a series of safety violations, after it found hundreds of quality system violations at its 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and at the 737 fuselage factory of Boeing subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, from September 2023 through February 2024. The Alaska Airlines incident in January 2024 prompted the U.S. Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden to open a criminal investigation. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Rod Nickel and Edmund Klamann)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By David Shepardson and Dan Catchpole WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) -Boeing won approval on Friday to raise its 737 MAX production to 42 planes per month, the Federal Aviation Administration said, easing a 38-plane cap in place since January last year and boosting its efforts to shore up its finances and move past concerns over safety and quality. The FAA imposed the unprecedented production cap shortly after a 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 that was missing four key bolts in a door plug, causing a gaping hole to open in the fuselage at 16,000 feet (4,900 m). The incident revealed widespread production safety and quality lapses at Boeing. Increasing deliveries of the popular single-aisle airplane is critical to restoring Boeing's financial stability, following years of production disruptions and crises that have left it deep in debt and losing money. Planemakers receive the bulk of a customer's payment when they hand over an airplane.  The FAA said on Friday its safety inspectors "conducted extensive reviews of Boeing's production lines to ensure that this small production rate increase will be done safely." BOEING PLANS TO BEGIN BOOSTING PRODUCTION QUICKLY FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford called Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Friday to confirm the planemaker could raise the production rate to 42 planes, a person briefed on the matter said. Boeing plans to quickly begin boosting production accordingly, the source added. Workers at the company's Seattle-area factories have been preparing to increase the 737 production rate by adding equipment for greater capacity, two other sources familiar with the matter said. Boeing said it appreciated "the work by our team, our suppliers and the FAA to ensure we are prepared to increase production with safety and quality at the forefront." Boeing shares were up 1.2% in after-hours trading. Boeing has produced 737s at higher rates in the past but the supply chain is more stressed now. Forgings, castings, engines and even interiors have all caused supply chain headaches for planemakers in recent years, aerospace analyst Glenn McDonald said. Supply chain problems seem to be more sporadic and unpredictable than before the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were more systemic, he said, noting that a factory fire in February left Boeing scrambling to find new sources for specialized fasteners. "Boeing seems to be better prepared for this ramp up than they have been for previous ones," he said. Under enhanced FAA oversight, the company has taken a cautious approach to stabilizing and then increasing production. Boeing has built up substantial inventories of parts and materials as a buffer against supply chain bottlenecks.  It had $11 billion in raw materials stockpiled, according to its second quarter earnings filings. That compares with $6.4 billion in inventory in 2018, when it was producing more than 50 of the 737 jets a month. Boeing also has $53 billion in debt now, compared with about $12 billion in 2018. Wall Street analysts expect Boeing to lose money again this year but project a profit in 2026, which would mark Boeing's first profitable year since 2018. Last month, the FAA partially restored Boeing's authority to issue airworthiness certificates for new 737 MAX and 787 airplanes.  That authority had been revoked for individual MAX planes in 2019, following fatal crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia, and for wide-body 787 airplanes in 2022, due to production quality issues. In September, the FAA proposed a $3.1 million fine against Boeing for a series of safety violations, after it found hundreds of quality system violations at its 737 factory in Renton, Washington, and at the 737 fuselage factory of Boeing subcontractor Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, Kansas, from September 2023 through February 2024. The Alaska Airlines incident in January 2024 prompted the U.S. Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden to open a criminal investigation. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington, Dan Catchpole in Seattle and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Rod Nickel and Edmund Klamann)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed orders approving significant tariff relief for U.S. auto and engine production and setting new 25% tariffs on imported medium- and heavy-duty trucks and parts starting November 1. Trump is also setting a 10% tariff on imported buses. Trump's order makes automakers eligible for a credit equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for U.S. assembled vehicles through 2030 to offset imports tariffs on parts. He is also extending the import adjustment offset credit for U.S. engine production and for U.S. medium- and heavy-duty truck production. (Reporting by David Shepardson)

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By Alun John, Ankur Banerjee, Manya Saini, Nupur Anand and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK/LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -A clutch of bad loans at banks in recent weeks has shaken investor confidence in banking shares, which gyrated sharply late this week as unease mounted over credit risks that threatened to spill into the broader markets. The markets have weathered a string of credit scares and surprise write-downs over the past two years, but sentiment took a particularly hard knock in recent days from auto bankruptcies and alleged fraud that resulted in losses at several banks. The latest scare came on Thursday when Zions Bancorporation disclosed losses tied to two commercial and industrial loans and Western Alliance said it had initiated a lawsuit alleging fraud by Cantor Group V, LLC. Cantor denies the allegations. VARIETY OF ISSUES FUEL CREDIT CONCERNS "Markets have been gripped by a sense of fear and panic in the last couple of days," said Timothy Coffey, associate director of depository research at Janney Montgomery Scott. "There are different issues that are being conflated into one big issue about credit concerns." Pressure on bank stocks "is likely to continue, this panic is like a fever. Once it enters the system, it takes a while to leave," Coffey said.  The banking sector's exposure to two recent U.S. auto bankruptcies, at First Brands and Tricolor, has also rekindled concerns about lending standards more than two years after Silicon Valley Bank's failure triggered broader turmoil. "In the post-SVB world, regulators have been asking banks about their commercial real estate exposure, the percentage of their uninsured deposits, deposit strategy, how they are set up at the discount window, and those conversations have not changed," said Dan Hartman, a lawyer at Nutter. Still, many played down any parallels with the regional banking crisis in 2023, which was marked by the failure of several mid-sized banks including Silicon Valley Bank. "I would not equate what happened this week to the 2023 banking crisis," said Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence. He said investors now were reacting to losses they did not understand well, but he expected shares would recover as more information is released. U.S. BANK STOCKS CLAW BACK LOSSES U.S. bank stocks indeed rebounded on Friday, clawing back some of the steep losses the day before when fears over bad loans triggered a global selloff that swept through European and Asian markets. The rebound helped the main U.S. equities indexes finish higher in choppy trading even as investors stayed on edge about banks. Their anxiety had already been stirred by escalating U.S.-China trade tensions and the global economic outlook. The U.S. KBW Regional Banking Index, which closed down 6.3% on Thursday, ended Friday up 1.7%. An index tracking large-cap rivals finished up 0.6% after falling 3.6% the day before. In the European markets banks fell almost 3%, with Deutsche Bank and Barclays sliding around 6%. Financial firms in Asia, especially Japanese banks and insurers, also took a hit. Options market activity on Friday was mixed, as Thursday's initial defensive trading shifted toward modest positioning for a sector rebound. "While there's clear hedging tied to fears of credit deterioration and broader contagion, it's not yet a full-blown systemic panic — it's an increase in concern and uncertainty," said Chris Murphy, co-head of derivative strategy at Susquehanna Financial Group. Investors are also assessing whether recent strains in U.S. credit markets could affect AI-fueled valuations across markets. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said earlier this week about credit markets: "When you see one cockroach, there are probably more, and so everyone should be forewarned." INVESTORS ENCOURAGED BY STRONG EARNINGS White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Friday that banks have ample reserves and that he was optimistic credit markets could stay ahead of the curve. He added in an interview with Fox Business Network that Trump administration officials led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Federal Reserve's Michelle Bowman are "cleaning things up right now," but gave no further details. Strong earnings from Truist Financial, Regions Financial and Fifth Third on Friday bolstered investor sentiment, sending most U.S. regional banks higher on Friday. "The few recent corporate bankruptcies appear to be isolated cases, with the raft of bank earnings reports this week actually noting overall improving credit quality in the third quarter," said Stephen Biggar, director of financial research at Argus Research. Zions Bancorp rose 5.8% on Friday, after closing down 13% the day before. Western Alliance climbed 3.1% after losing roughly 11% on Thursday. Jefferies shares jumped 5.9% following a steep drop in the previous session. Some investors were encouraged by the emerging earnings picture. "It seems like despite some of the risks, right, the consumer is muddling through for now, and the market will probably eventually look through that," Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Seattle. "But we've got to clear some of these worry factors in the near term." (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore, Alun John in London and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, Tatiana Bautzer, Chuck Mikolajczak, Nupur Anand, Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Kevin Buckland, Stella Qiu, Dhara Ranasinghe, Jose Joel, Pritam Biswas and Medha Singh; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Mark Potter, Megan Davies, Lananh Nguyen, Nick Zieminski and Edmund Klamann)

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By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed orders expanding credits for U.S. auto and engine production and setting new 25% tariffs on imported medium- and heavy-duty trucks and parts starting November 1. The tariffs, which the orders say are being made on national security grounds, are aimed at shifting more auto production to the United States but could be a significant blow to Mexico, which is the largest exporter of medium- and heavy-duty trucks to the United States. Trump is also setting a 10% tariff on imported buses. Trump's order makes automakers eligible for a credit equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for U.S. assembled vehicles through 2030 to offset import tariffs on parts. He is also extending the 3.75% credit for U.S. engine production and for U.S. medium- and heavy-duty truck production. The new tariffs cover all Class 3 through Class 8 trucks, including large pick-up trucks, moving trucks, cargo trucks, dump trucks, and tractors for 18-wheelers. Trump last month said the tariffs were to protect manufacturers from "unfair outside competition" and the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier urged Trump not to impose new truck tariffs, noting the top five import sources are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, and Finland "all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to U.S. national security." Reuters first reported the details of the auto tariff action on October 3. The order provides GM, Ford, Toyota Motor, Stellantis, Honda, Tesla, and other automakers with financial relief against tariffs paid on imported auto parts that were previously imposed by the Trump administration. The Commerce Department said in June it planned an import adjustment offset equal to 3.75% of the suggested retail price for eligible U.S. assembled vehicles through April 2026 and then a second year at 2.5% to address tariffs from imported automobile parts. The revised credit expands it to five years, keeps it at 3.75% throughout and extends it to more parts, which makes it more valuable for automakers and could give companies more incentive to shift production, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno said. Ford CEO Jim Farley said Trump’s order would help make auto parts affordable for U.S. production and the new import tariffs on larger trucks would help level the playing field with imports. In May, Trump imposed 25% auto tariffs on more than $460 billion worth of imports of vehicles and auto parts annually, but has since struck deals to reduce those tariffs on some countries including Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The Commerce Department said in August it was hiking steel and aluminum tariffs on more than 400 products including numerous auto parts totaling $240 billion in annual imports. The parts include automotive exhaust systems and steel needed for electric vehicles as well as components for buses. GM said earlier this year the company will face up to $5 billion in gross tariff-related costs this year, while Ford cited a $3 billion gross hit. (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese)

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