Argentina announced Tuesday that it reached a $900 million preliminary accord to settle its pending debt with 50,000 Italian holders of defaulted Argentine government bonds. Finance minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said that the agreement with Italian bondholders includes the Argentine government's acknowledgement of the debt and reasonable interest.
Argentina's central bank said on Friday it had sealed a deal for a US$5 billion, one-year loan from international private banks, bolstering its low foreign reserves as the country heads into talks with creditors suing over unpaid debt. Argentina has been shut out of global credit markets because of its long-running legal dispute in U.S. courts with creditors over debt it defaulted on in 2002.
Representatives from holdout investment funds have requested the Argentine government to postpone until the first week of February, next week's scheduled proposal to overcome the country's debt situation which remains technically in default.
Argentina announced that all the details of the negotiation with the speculative funds, taking place in New York, will be made public in order to guarantee the transparency of the process. The news from the Finance Ministry dismissed reports that the holdouts were demanding the Argentine government sign a confidentiality agreement before talks can begin.
Argentina's new finance minister said on Wednesday it was imperative to resolve the country's legal dispute with U.S. creditors over unpaid debt because financing of the country's fiscal deficit this year may depend on progress on the issue.
Creditors suing Argentina over billions of dollars in defaulted bonds have subpoenaed HSBC Holdings Plc for information about the country's effort to raise money abroad, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.
The incoming government of Argentine president Mauricio Macri is about to receive its first financial boost from overseas, which according La Nacion sources could be in the range of 8 billion dollars.
The court-appointed mediator in a long-running debt dispute pitting Argentina against holdout hedge funds said Wednesday that President-elect Mauricio Macri's incoming administration intended to negotiate a settlement.
The Argentine government has turned down a plea from mediator Daniel Pollack to return to the negotiating table with holdout investors, with the Economy Ministry considering that talks with the speculative funds, so-called 'vulture funds', would be inappropriate given the behavior of the litigants.
A United States federal judge on Thursday said Citigroup Inc cannot process interest payments by Argentina on some bonds issued under that country's law. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan said letting Citigroup process the payments on so-called dollar-denominated exchange bonds would violate a requirement that Argentina treat bondholders equally.