A long-awaited showdown in a US appeals court next week pits Argentina against a group of investors who refused to swap their debt after the country's historic 2002 default

MercoPress

Argentina and ‘holdout hedge funds’ prepare for the final clash this week

 

Monday, February 25, 2013

 

Argentina risks defaulting again, this time on 24 billion in restructured debt if it sticks to a vow never to comply with orders to pay so-called “holdouts” but still tries to pay the vast majority of investors who exchanged their bonds in 2005 and 2010.

 

Buenos Aires calls the holdouts vultures for buying the debt at a steep discount and then demanding full payment in the aftermath of the country's crippling economic crisis. The holdouts, led by NML Capital Ltd, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Management, and Aurelius Capital Management, counter that they're just trying to hold Argentina to its obligations and that the country has plenty of reserves to pay them.

 

 

Bloomberg

Argentina Bets on Skeptical U.S. Judges to Avoid Crisis

 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

 

By Bob Van Voris

 

Argentina’s 12-year fight to shake off its 2001 financial crisis is in the hands of U.S. judges who assailed its “continual disregard” for creditor rights and refused to overturn lower court orders the nation repay billions of dollars in debt it defaulted on when its economy buckled.

 

Argentina contends that enforcing those orders may expose it to more than $43 billion in claims it can’t pay, possibly triggering another meltdown. Investors in the defaulted debt countered that if the country wants to pay holders of bonds restructured after its 2001 collapse, so-called exchange bonds, it has to pay them too. Until now, the U.S. courts have agreed.

 

 

Buenos Aires Herald

Argentina, hedge funds set for US appeals court battle

 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

 

A long-awaited showdown in a US appeals court next week pits Argentina against a group of investors who refused to swap their debt after the country's historic 2002 default.

 

Argentina risks defaulting again, this time on $24 billion in restructured debt if it sticks to a vow never to comply with orders to pay so-called "holdouts" but still tries to pay the vast majority of investors who exchanged their bonds in 2005 and 2010.

 

Buenos Aires calls the holdouts vultures for buying the debt at a steep discount and then demanding full payment in the aftermath of the country's crippling economic crisis. The holdouts, led by NML Capital Ltd, an affiliate of hedge fund Elliott Management, and Aurelius Capital Management, counter that they're just trying to hold Argentina to its obligations and that the country has plenty of reserves to pay them.