Creditors of Puerto Rico's electric power authority are likely to agree by a Tuesday deadline to extend a forbearance agreement aimed at avoiding a potentially messy default, Reuters reported on Friday. Negotiations between the power authority PREPA and creditors holding some $9 billion in debt will likely continue over the weekend, Lisa Donahue, PREPA's chief restructuring officer, said on Thursday. "PREPA expects to meet with the media and make a public statement on Monday," Donahue said in a statement. An extension appears likely in the wake of a productive meeting between PREPA and its creditors on Thursday. One group comprised of 60 percent of PREPA's bondholders has proposed to help finance PREPA's turnaround, though it is unclear how much momentum the proposal has. The group, which includes OppenheimerFunds, Franklin Templeton, BlueMountain Capital Management and others, suggested that it would be willing to backstop a financing arrangement that would be brought to the broader market, in exchange for concessions such as using savings generated by recent drops in oil prices to pay down debt.
