Puerto Rico “Generously” Offers To Repay 54 Cents On The Dollar To Creditors Owed $70 Billion
Height Securities’ Daniel Hanson is “deeply skeptical” about the viability of Puerto Rico’s proposal for restructuring the island’s $70 billion in debt.
Hanson, in a note out late last week, said Governor Alejandro Padilla was “significantly unlikely” to present a “credible” plan and that the commonwealth’s offer to creditors may be “laughably low.”
As a reminder, Puerto Rico defaulted on some of its non-GO debt last month, presaging more missed payments this year as creditors come calling in May and July.
So far, the island has been able to avoid a messy default on its GO debt by utilizing a revenue “clawback” mechanism that effectively allows the commonwealth to divert money earmarked for non-GO debt, a move decried by the monolines.
In December, the market thought there might be a light at the end of the tunnel when creditors and the island’s power utility managed to get the bond insurers to go along with a $8 billion restructuring for PREPA, but that fell apart a week ago when lawmakers failed to vote on a new tax. Ultimately, the deadline to pass the bill was extended to February 16, but the fraugh negotiations underscore how precarious the situation has become.
On Monday, we got our first look at Puerto Rico’s opening salvo in what’s likely to be protracted battle to tackle the entire debt burden.
“Puerto Rico on Monday announced a major exchange offer to creditors that could reduce its debt by about $23 billion, the opening salvo in efforts to resolve the island’s crippling $70 billion debt crisis,” Reuters reports, adding that “the new plan would reduce a $49.2 billion chunk of Puerto Rico’s debt by about 46 percent, to $26.5 billion, by offering creditors payout reductions under a new, so-called “base bond” with better legal protections.”
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
