Puerto Rico's indebted electric power authority PREPA will seek to persuade creditors in a meeting today to give it more time to restructure its business, Reuters reported today. At a meeting in New York, PREPA will argue that creditors, who hold over $9 billion of its debt, should extend a forbearance agreement that expires on March 31. Once the agreement expires creditors have the right to accelerate their claims, potentially forcing the utility into insolvency. The creditor group represents 60 percent of PREPA's bondholders and includes large hedge funds such as Blue Mountain Capital and Appaloosa Management, mutual funds Oppenheimer and Franklin Templeton, bond insurers, as well as Citibank and Scotiabank. PREPA missed a deadline on March 2 when it was supposed to present bondholders with a comprehensive restructuring plan. Earlier PREPA told creditors restructuring would likely take 10 years instead of an expected five years. The creditors did not take action when that milestone was missed.
