Argentina asked a US judge late Friday night to maintain his order blocking payment on defaulted sovereign bonds to holdout investors until lingering questions are settled in a higher court's appeals process.
US appeals court ruled Argentina discriminated against bondholders who refused to take part in massive debt restructurings in 2005 and 2010 by deciding to pay them later than bondholders who agreed to participate.
The Argentine Navy Secretary General Luis María González Day, expressed confidence on Sunday that the joint ministerial commission that went to Ghana to seek the release of the training vessel ARA Libertad will reach a successful agreement.
A Ghana court judge rejected on Thursday the plea put forward by Argentina to release the ARA Libertad training ship, which has been detained in a port close to Accra with its crew since October 2nd due to a complaint by a US hedge fund.
Argentina is refusing to pay the 20 million dollars in ransom that New York hedge fund dealer Paul Singer is demanding in exchange for releasing the country’s Naval training vessel currently retained in the port of Tempa, Ghana, West Africa, reports the New York Post.
The case of the seized Argentine naval ship ARA Libertad was heard on Tuesday by a Ghana Commercial Court which will rule on Thursday whether to release the vessel impounded on arrival last week at the Port of Tema, according to the official Ghana News Agency.
Next Tuesday the Ghana Supreme Court will be holding a hearing to consider a motion from the government of President Cristina Fernandez requesting the annulment of the injunction retaining Argentina’s navy training vessel ARA Libertad following a legal proceeding from a hedge fund holding Argentine defaulted sovereign bonds.
Argentina will have to come up with 10 million dollars or more as a bond to liberate the flagship of its navy, “Libertad” retained in the Ghanaian port of Tema, following on the request from a US hedge fund.
Argentina claimed on Wednesday that the navy school training frigate “Libertad” has been retained in Ghana and blamed “unscrupulous financers” belonging to “vulture funds” who are demanding the payment of sovereign bonds, said the office of Minister Hector Timerman in an official communiqué.
Holders of Greek bonds will suffer a larger ‘hair cut’ than that experienced by Argentine creditors forecasts Argentina’s former Finance Secretary Guillermo Nielsen who played a crucial role in negotiations with creditors following the 2002 default.