Argentina Must Pay $1.33 Billion to Owners of Bonds
By Bob Van Voris and Katia Porzecanski - Nov 22, 2012 6:11 AM GMT+0100
Argentina must pay $1.33 billion to holders of its defaulted bonds next month if it proceeds with scheduled payments of more than $3 billion to owners of its restructured bonds, a U.S. judge ruled, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by Bloomberg News.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in Manhattan ruled that Argentina must pay the money into an escrow account while an appeals court considers his rulings in the case. The ruling couldn’t immediately be confirmed in online court records.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled Oct. 26 that Argentina must pay holders of the defaulted notes if it pays off on its restructured debt. It sent the case back to Griesa to consider how to apply the ruling to third parties and setting a formula for paying holders of the defaulted bonds.
Griesa denied Argentina’s request to stay his ruling while it’s considered by the appeals court, citing press statements by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and members of her cabinet saying they wouldn’t pay the holders of the country’s restructured debt.
“Surely an extraordinary circumstance of the most serious nature arises from continuous declarations by the President of Argentina and cabinet officers, that Argentina will not honor or carry out the current rulings of the District Court and Court of Appeals in the litigation to which Argentina is a party,” Griesa wrote in his opinion.
A phone call and e-mail to press officials at the Argentine Economy Ministry seeking comment on the ruling weren’t immediately returned yesterday after regular business hours.
2001 Default
Argentina defaulted on a record $95 billion in debt in 2001.
In 2005 and 2010, the country offered to let holders of the defaulted bonds exchange them for new bonds at a discount of more than 70 percent, according to a brief filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan by holders of the exchanged bonds. About 92 percent of the bondholders accepted the offer, they said in the filing.
The case is NML Capital Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina, 08-cv-06978, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporters on this story: Bob Van Voris in New York at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net; Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net
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