Argentina President Rents Plane For International Trip To Avoid More Elliott Confiscations

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/08/2013 13:42 -0500

• Bahnhofstrasse
 
• default
 
• High Yield
 
• United Kingdom

In a somewhat surprising bid to avoid having even more Argentina assets impounded by the increasingly more belligerent hedge fund hordes, president Kirchner opted to squeeze the government's already dwindling coffers further and instead of using her official aircraft, she decided to pay British air charter Chapman Freeborn $880,000 for an airplane rental to take her to Cuba, the UAE, Indonesia and Vietnam. This happens even as Argentina is once again caught in a messy brawl with the UK over the Falklands. And while the nearly $1 million abuse of taxpayer funds will hardly pass unnoticed, we have no doubt that Argentina should be able to finance itself in the international markets efficiently should it choose to: just slap a high yield on the debt and pitch it to Elliott, already in possession of an Argentina boat, who may (or may not) gladly buy it. Stranger things have happened.

From AFP:

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will go on a four-nation trip in a rented British airplane for fear that her official aircraft would be impounded in a debt dispute, the government said Monday.

Despite a bitter war of words with London over the Falkland Islands, Kirchner's government is paying British air charter firm Chapman Freeborn $880,000 for the trip to Cuba, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Vietnam.

The government's concern is very real: last year, a court in Ghana impounded the Argentine navy ship "Libertad" for two months following a request from NML Capital, a Cayman Islands-based investment firm.

The company, denounced by Argentina's government as a "vulture" fund," says Buenos Aires owes it $370 million stemming from the nation's debt default a decade ago.

Oscar Parrilli, the presidency's secretary general, said in a statement that it was "highly probable" that funds would try to detain Kirchner's official Tango 01 (T-01) aircraft on her upcoming trip.

Even though using the official plane would be 20 percent cheaper, the foreign ministry advised against using it "due to the aggressive posture of vulture funds," he said. A government source said the trip begins in Havana on Thursday.

Kirchner, who rented a Chapman Freeborn charter for previous trips in 2010 and 2011, has traded barbs with British Prime Minister David Cameron over the Falklands, which Britain retained after a bloody war on the islands in 1982.

We hope CFK does not have a Swiss bank account (like everybody else apparently these days) as breaching through the Elliott cordon of armed guards on Bahnhofstrasse to get to her stash would be worthy of a Bruckenheimer movie.