Argentina

Argenova, the Argentinian subsidiary of troubled multinational Pescanova, is working with a legal team to prepare for filing for insolvency as soon as possible, reported Faro de Vigo. However, with all executive functions taken away from president and chairman Manuel Fernandez de Sousa, and the board of directors, it is unclear who will make the decision to enter proceedings. Deloitte, proposed by Spanish regulator CNMV as administrator to oversee the group's bankruptcy, will not take over until Thursday this week.

Argentina’s opposition-dominated Congress on Thursday approved legislation that would double the cost of laying off private and public employees over the next six months, handing President Mauricio Macri his first legislative setback since taking office, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mr. Macri, who said the law would spook investors and destroy jobs, is expected to veto it on Friday. The setback for Mr. Macri comes as pollsters say Argentines are increasingly worried about the prospect of losing their jobs.

Argentina could issue $30bn in debt this year, as other issuers seek to mimic the government's success in returning to international capital markets with a blockbuster bond sale last month. First out of the gates will be Argentina’s provincial governments, expected to issue at least $4bn this year, the Financial Times reported. They hope to take advantage of rekindled investor interest in a country isolated from bond markets by a protracted creditor dispute, which was triggered by a 2001 default on almost $100bn of debt. “Argentine debt represents an extraordinary opportunity.

After summoning 100 representatives of Argentina’s business elite to the presidential residence this week, Mauricio Macri praised the few that had recently announced investments. The rest, he implied, were not doing their bit for the country, the Financial Times reported. The centre-right leader has implemented a barrage of economic reforms since taking office in December, including fixing a decade-long creditor dispute that enabled Argentina’s blockbuster return to international capital markets with a $16.5bn debt issue.

Argentina returned to the international bond markets for the first time in 15 years on Monday as it winds down a long-running battle with investors following its 2001 default, the Irish Times reported. Argentina announced a $10 billion-$15 billion bond, whose proceeds will help pay off the holders of its defaulted bonds who had rejected the payment terms of the country’s debt restructuring. New President Mauricio Macri wasted little time after taking office in December in agreeing terms with most of the holdouts, led by US hedge funds Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital.

A US appeals court has cleared the way for Argentina to raise as much as $15bn to pay holdout creditors, enabling the Latin American sovereign to re-enter international capital markets after more than a decade on the sidelines, the Financial Times reported. The decision from the US District Court of Appeals in Manhattan affirmed a judge’s ruling to lift an injunction that barred Argentina from paying certain creditors, which subsequently pushed it into default in 2014.

An Argentine prosecutor has requested that former President Cristina Kirchner be investigated as suspect in a wide-ranging money-laundering probe allegedly involving a prominent government contractor and associate of Mrs. Kirchner, The Wall Street Journal reported. State news agency Telam reported on Saturday that federal prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan made the request to the judge in charge of the investigation focusing on Lázaro Báez, the owner of leading construction firms and partner of hotel and property businesses with Mrs.

Argentina’s Senate gave the green light to a landmark deal to repay creditors holding defaulted debt in the early hours of Thursday, marking the end of a 14-year legal battle that had made the country a global financial pariah, the Irish Times reported. The deal, which had already been approved by the lower house of Congress, is the cornerstone of new President Mauricio Macri’s plan for revitalising an economy hobbled by low investment, high inflation and precarious central bank reserves.

Argentina settled with an additional 115 individual creditors holding defaulted sovereign bonds for $155 million, Daniel Pollack, the court-appointed mediator in the long-running case, said on Friday, Reuters reported. Pollack's announcement brings the total amount of settlements agreed in principle with U.S. creditors for more than the original $6.5 billion pot of money committed to end the dispute. The most recent settlement also moves Latin America's No. 3 economy closer to ending a festering 14-year legal battle over its historic default.

Argentina’s deal to put a bitter 15-year creditor saga behind it won’t come cheap, Bloomberg News reported. On Sunday, the country agreed to terms with bondholders led by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer over unpaid debts from its record $95 billion default in 2001. The settlement, which will let Argentina regain access to overseas bond markets, is the biggest, and arguably the most significant, in a string of creditor accords struck by President Mauricio Macri since he took office Dec. 10. The tab for all these deals?