Argentina is poised to miss a bond payment today, putting the country on the brink of its second default in 13 years, after a U.S. court blocked the cash from being distributed until the government settles with creditors from the previous debt debacle, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The nation has a 30-day grace period after missing the $539 million debt payment to seek an accord with a group of defaulted bondholders led by billionaire Paul Singer’s NML Capital Ltd. and to prevent a default on its $28.7 billion of performing global dollar bonds. Both Argentina and NML have said that they’re open to talks. A decade-long battle between Argentina and holdout creditors from the country’s $95 billion default in 2001 is coming to a head. The U.S. Supreme Court on June 16 left intact a ruling requiring the country to pay about $1.5 billion to holders of defaulted debt at the same time it makes payments on restructured bonds. Argentina last week transferred funds to its bond trustee to pay the restructured notes, only to have U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Griesa order the payment sent back while the parties negotiate.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-06-29/argentina-at-brink-of-de…
To learn more about the next steps for Argentina and sovereign debt restructuring, be sure to watch James Millstein’s June 20 presentation, which he made at ABI’s Cross-Border Symposium: http://news.abi.org/videos