Argentina

Argentina and the province of Buenos Aires will start setting up virtual meetings this week with institutional investors as they continue the process of restructuring more than $76 billion in debt, according to people familiar with the plan, Bloomberg News reported. The national government will call on about 20 institutions and funds -- including BlackRock, Ashmore and Fintech’s David Martinez -- to present its offer to restructure $69 billion in debt, the people said asking not to be named because the the plan isn’t public yet.

Argentines are flocking to buy black-market dollars as real interest rates sink below zero and fears mount of yet another chaotic sovereign debt default, Bloomberg News reported. The peso weakened to a record 118 pesos per dollar in informal exchange houses known as “caves” Thursday, up from 107 the previous day, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. That’s even higher than the blue-chip swap rate, another parallel rate derived from buying securities locally and selling them abroad.

Argentina failed to make a $503m payment due on Wednesday, setting the clock running on what is expected to be a ninth sovereign default, the Financial Times reported. The decision came one day after economy minister Martín Guzmán said that Buenos Aires “will not be able to make [any] debt payments in the coming days”. By failing to pay, the government marked the beginning of a 30-day grace period during which Argentina must pay up to avoid defaulting on $65bn of foreign debt owned by private creditors.

Argentina’s money supply is surging as the country deals with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, stoking inflation fears and increasing the chances of a chaotic debt default next month, Bloomberg News reported. Since the country is cut off from credit markets as it nears default, it can’t borrow to fund stimulus programs, as other countries in the region are doing. Instead, the central bank is emitting massive amounts of money to cover government programs, threatening to drive up an inflation rate that is already among the highest in the world.

Argentina’s biggest bondholders have rejected the government’s offer to restructure $83bn of foreign debt, raising the prospect that the country is headed for its ninth sovereign debt default, the Financial Times reported. In statements released on Monday, three creditor groups rebuffed the terms laid out by the government late last week, which called for interest payments to be delayed until 2023 and principal payments until 2026. The deal encompassed not only debt issued by the country since 2016, but also previously restructured bonds issued in 2005 and 2010.

Argentina unveiled a proposal to restructure foreign bonds that would push back the majority of its debt payments to the next decade, Bloomberg News reported. Holders of the country’s overseas debt are being offered a series of new securities of various maturities, none of which will accrue interest before 2022. No principal will be returned before 2026. If accepted by investors, the proposal would significantly reduce the country’s short-term debt payments, part of the government strategy to buy itself enough time to shore up its finances and the economy.

Some 15 years after hitting foreign investors with one of the harshest sovereign bond renegotiations in modern history, Argentina unveiled a proposal for a new debt restructuring that appears to offer only slightly more generous terms, Bloomberg News reported. While government officials didn’t give all the specifics of their offer Thursday evening, they revealed enough to make clear that the losses for creditors holding some $70 billion worth of bonds would be massive. The highlights: a three-year moratorium, a 62% reduction in interest payments and a 5% cut in the value of the principal.

Argentina registered to issue more than $50 billion in new debt as it prepares to make a painful restructuring offer to holders of its sovereign bonds, Bloomberg News reported. The filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission gives an inkling of how much in new securities the country anticipates issuing in the restructuring. President Alberto Fernandez will meet provincial governors at 4pm Thursday at the presidential residence to discuss details of the debt plan, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Argentina is set to make a debt restructuring proposal to international creditors this week amid delays caused by the coronavirus, an economy ministry source said on Tuesday, a key step as the country looks to strike a deal to avoid default, the Financial Times reported. Argentina’s government is locked in talks to revamp close to $70 billion in foreign currency debt issued under international law to push back payments that it says the country cannot pay unless given time to revive stalled economic growth. “They don’t think it will be tomorrow, it’s more likely on Thursday.

Argentina could announce an offer to restructure $83 billion in foreign-currency bonds as soon as this week as it tries to avoid default, despite shutting down the economy to contain the spread of the coronavirus, LatinFinance reported. "We will make the offer in the next few days," President Alberto Fernández said late Sunday in an interview on the local television channel Net TV.