Holders of Argentine Euro bonds filed an emergency request that a U.S. judge halt litigation over the South American nation’s defaulted bonds, citing an agreement by some debt-holders to waive a key clause as justification to allow settlement talks extra time, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa previously ruled that the country can’t pay that debt unless it also pays more than $1.5 billion to holders of its defaulted bonds. The Euro bondholders, who aren’t involved in a suit by hedge funds led by billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital, said holders of more than 5.2 billion euros ($6.97 billion) of restructured bonds agreed to waive a key provision in their contracts. Argentina warned that the provision may allow those bondholders to claim billions of dollars more if it pays off defaulted bondholders such as NML, and is a major obstacle to a settlement. The Euro bondholders asked Judge Griesa for a delay of at least 90 days in enforcing his orders in hopes of “opening up a path to settlement,” one that may be more easily obtained given the waiver of the rights upon future offers clause.
