Argentina

Argentina’s main bondholder groups say they now represent more than 50% of the country’s overseas debt, potentially strengthening their bargaining power at a crucial time in the country’s bond restructuring, Bloomberg News reported. A group of creditors seeking to extract better terms from the government in its $65 billion debt restructuring says they have added large funds to their bloc, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Argentina has lost an attempt to halt a lawsuit in English courts brought by four hedge funds which say the country has manipulated economic data to avert payments in connection with growth-linked sovereign debt instruments, Reuters reported. Asset managers Palladian Partners L.P., HBK Master Fund L.P, Hirsh Group LLC and Virtual Emerald International Limited said they are owed from 525 million-645 million euros in payments linked to the GDP warrants designed to pay out to investors if a number of growth criteria targets are met or exceeded.

Argentina’s three largest creditor groups joined forces to submit a new bond restructuring proposal that would provide the country more than $35 billion in debt relief over the next nine years, Bloomberg News reported. The Ad Hoc group, the Exchange Bondholder group and the Argentina Creditor Committee, which represent investors including BlackRock Inc. and Ashmore Group PLC, said that they had agreed to form a negotiating bloc and reject the government’s latest offer.

Argentina’s government sent a bill to Congress late on Thursday night laying out its plans to restructure public debt in dollars issued under local law, offering creditors new instruments in both foreign currency and pesos, Reuters reported. The process to revamp the local-law debt is running in parallel to tense negotiations with international creditors to restructure $65 billion of the nation’s foreign-law bonds, with a deadline for creditors to accept a “final” offer on Aug. 4.

Alberto Fernández, Argentina’s president, has made an impassioned appeal for the world to accept that — with an economy devastated by coronavirus — he cannot budge from his final offer to restructure $65bn of foreign debt, the Financial Times reported. Weighed down by $323bn of borrowing, Argentina was already in a deep recession before the pandemic and in May the South American country defaulted for the ninth time in its history — although no creditors have attempted to sue it yet.

Argentina’s bondholders shouldn’t expect any more improvements or changes to the country’s debt restructuring proposal, Economy Minister Martin Guzman said, according to a Bloomberg News report. The government sees no room for further modifications on an amended offer released Sunday night, part of Argentina’s bid to restructure $65 billion of debt. The proposal gives bondholders about $13 billion more than its initial plan announced in April. “Clearly not,” Guzman said Wednesday, responding to a question about modifying the deal in any way.

Banks are asking a New York judge to subpoena more documents from bankrupt soy-export giant Vicentin SAIC, saying they may have been the victims of “major international financial impropriety,” Bloomberg News reported. Lenders including Rabobank, Credit Agricole, ING and the International Finance Corp., the private-lending arm of the World Bank, want copies of wire transfers by Argentina’s Vicentin and several related companies that include a meatpacker and a vineyard.

Ratings agency S&P Global on Wednesday slashed seven Argentine foreign-currency bonds to default, triggered by non-payment of interest, as the government remains entangled in debt negotiations with its foreign creditors, Reuters reported. S&P said it downgraded to “D” from “CC” three foreign-law foreign-currency bonds that had about $582 million in interest due at the end of June. It also downgraded four Argentine-law, U.S. dollar-denominated bonds with $837 million interest due at the end of June.

Two major Argentine creditor groups said on Tuesday that there had been “no meaningful engagement” with the country’s government since mid-June, flagging concerns about a deal after talks to restructure $65 billion in debts stalled this month, Reuters reported. Argentina, which defaulted on foreign bond payments in May, is racing to restructure its debts, which have become unsustainable after two straight years of recession, to avoid a messy and protracted legal standoff with creditors.

Argentina’s economic activity plunged 26.4% in April, the country’s official statistics agency said on Monday, the worst monthly fall on record as the country reeled from the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic and a nationwide lockdown, Reuters reported. The April drop, after the South American grains producer imposed the lockdown in mid-March, was worse than the 21% decline predicted by analysts polled by Reuters, underscoring how badly the pandemic has battered local industry.