U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa has delayed by a week a December hearing to consider whether Citigroup Inc should be allowed to process an interest payment by Argentina on bonds issued under its local laws following its 2002 default.
Brazil’s PTG Pactual Bank and the China Construction Bank are at the forefront of the initiative to buy up the 1.6 billion dollars of debt which Argentina owes “holdouts” NML-Elliott and Aurelius, according to a report from Buenos Aires Ambito Financiero, the country's leading financial newspaper.
Italian bondholders filed a complaint order to United States District Judge Thomas Griesa asking to be given the same benefits as Aurelius Management and NML Management, the “holdouts” that were authorized by Griesa to be paid the full debt Argentina has with them.
A US court on Friday dismissed an appeal by Citibank and Argentina to let the country make payments on debt tied up in a bitter legal battle with hedge funds.
One of two hedge funds that sued Argentina over defaulted bonds branded the country's leaders “outlaws” on Wednesday after Buenos Aires moved to shift its bond payment method.
President Cristina Fernandez said on Tuesday her government will move to service its defaulted debt in Argentina or allow bondholders to swap their bonds for new bonds governed by national law in order to get around a U.S. court order.
Argentine holdout creditor Aurelius Capital Management has said that after talks with many financial institutions, the prospects for finding a private-settlement solution to the Argentine sovereign debt dispute had garnered no realistic proposals.
Aurelius Capital Management has shot down speculation that the hedge fund was fielding a viable private-sector proposal for selling its untendered Argentine sovereign debt in a bid to shorten the amount of time Argentina is in default.
NML Capital Ltd, one of the lead holdout creditors in Argentina's sovereign bond dispute said on Thursday the Argentine government refused to negotiate through a mediator and was all but preparing to default on already restructured debt.
Argentine debt holdout investor Mark Brodsky, chairman of Aurelius Capital Management, said his group will not ask US Judge Thomas Griesa to suspend his payment order, after a story in Argentina's La Nacion newspaper on Thursday suggested that Paul Singer’s NML Capital Ltd could ask Griesa to reinstate the stay of injunction as requested by Argentina.