09/01/2020 - 10:08
Clarín.com
Economy
The exchange of debt in dollars under foreign legislation came to an end: the Government announced that it obtained an adhesion of 93.5%, a percentage to which the "anti-vulture clauses" are applied and reaches 99%, it was explained in the event at the Bicentennial Museum.
But why didn't it reach the 100% total?
There were two series of bonds for a total of about US $ 633 million that
do not end up being exchanged in this operation
, explained an official source.
These are two small series of bonds, of PAR securities that were issued in the 2010 debt swap, in which the collective action clauses (CAC) or “anti-vultures” were not applied.
According to these clauses, in order for a series to be exchanged in its entirety, 66% of the bondholders had to explicitly accept the exchange of their title, in the case of the bonds issued in 2005 and 2010. And, thus, those that did not end up seeing their exchanged bonds
dragged down by the majorities.
Of the total of these two series, for about US $ 633 million, there is one that is larger and reaches about US $ 550 million.
This, in particular, is issued in euros, so it
is governed by English law.
This characteristic of jurisdiction of that particular bond makes the Government think that it is not some vulture fund that has bought these securities to litigate.
What vulture funds do is buy bonds, wait for their default, and go to litigation.
"But they always seek that what is prosecuted is in the courts of New York," explained a source, which is why they do not believe that it is about this type of bondholders.
"
The suspicion is that retailers are those who did not enter
and could not make the subscription of the exchange," he added.
Martín Guzmán, on Monday, before the announcement of the agreement with the debt bondholders at Casa Rosada.
Photo Marcelo Carroll
In the Government they evaluate what will be done and
rule out making a direct payment
, but they will work to solve it.
There is a limit to what can be offered to them: in the prospectus for the offer from Argentina, which achieved 93.5% acceptance, there is the RUFO clause.
This clause indicates that, in the event that Argentina offers better conditions to the bondholders who did not enter, all those who did will receive the same treatment, so the proposal must be improved.
From the Ministry of Economy they highlighted that "no creditor rejected the Argentine offer. The 99% reached allows to exit the default.
The instruments not exchanged do not have default clauses crossed with the new titles
to be delivered on September 4."
"However, the work to restore sustainability continues and we are going to design a specific strategy for these instruments since the sustainable approach is one in which integrality is preserved," they added.
As they recalled,
"the dispersion of the original holders of these bonds is a challenge"
that they knew beforehand.
"At the beginning of the debt operation process in 2020 and with the collaboration of the information agent, the universe of bondholders holding the securities eligible for the operation was identified. The results of the survey, although incomplete, suggested that the universe of investors retailers were very limited, "they added.
The Government successfully closed on Monday one of the main axes of the beginning of its administration: that of the debt swap under international legislation for some US $ 66.8 billion.
The announcement was led by Alberto Fernández, but it was Minister Martín Guzmán who gave the details of the operation.
With this operation, the horizon for the coming years of high debt maturities with private creditors is cleared.
"Argentina will have debt relief in the next decade of US $ 37.7 billion and
the average interest rate drops from 7% to 3.07%,
also allowing us to have
greater relief in the first 5 to 10 years,
" said Guzmán in your presentation.
Once this chapter is closed, which implies that this Friday the 4th the exchange of the titles for 99% of the debt is made effective, the Government now faces the negotiation with the International Monetary Fund to obtain a new loan with which the above, obtained under the government of Mauricio Macri.
NE