Argentina plans to return to international credit markets in April with three bonds sales totaling US$11.68 billion under US law if the Argentine National Congress swiftly approves a debt deal for holdout creditors, Argentine Ministry of Finance officials told Congress on Friday.
Argentine Minister of Finance Alfonso Prat-Gay said the bonds, which would be used to finance the payouts to investors holding unpaid debt stemming from the country’s 2002 default, would carry maturities of five, 10 and 30 years.
Prat-Gay and his deputy, Luis Caputo, on Friday presented a package of debt agreements brokered with creditors, including a US$4.65 billion cash payout to the main holdouts suing in a Manhattan court led by billionaire Paul Singer.
Argentina has reached provisional settlements with about 85 percent of bondholders and says talks continue with the rest.
“If the deal extends to all holdout investors, the bond issue will be for US$11.684 billion. That’s what we need to close this chapter definitively,” Prat-Gay said.
The debate in Congress is the first major political test of Argentine President Mauricio Macri’s ability to garner cross-party support for his economic reform package, the success of which hinges on ending the festering 14-year debt battle.
Caputo told legislators the bonds would carry an interest rate of about 7.5 percent.
While debt brokers see healthy appetite for Argentine debt after its prolonged absence from global debt markets, the gloomy global context might weigh.
Caputo said on Friday that agreements in principle had been struck with 10 additional bondholders involving settlements totaling US$6.7 million.
The deals are subject to Congress lifting the two laws and that the court lift injunctions on bond payments that have been in place for the past several years.
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