Puerto Rico bond prices suggest that investors are doubtful of a proposal being floated that would have the U.S. Treasury assist the commonwealth in the restructuring of its debt, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. General obligations maturing July 2035, the most actively-traded Puerto Rico securities in the last three months and originally sold at 93 cents on the dollar, changed hands at an average price of 74.7 cents, little changed from Wednesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Trades of at least $1 million on taxable pension bonds maturing July 2038 show that the bonds changed hands Thursday at an average price of 30.5 cents, up from 25 cents on Tuesday, Bloomberg data show. “It’s still in its infancy, so you can’t get too excited about it as a bond investor,” said Gary Pollack, who manages $6 billion of municipal debt, including Puerto Rico bonds, as head of fixed-income trading at Deutsche Bank AG’s Private Wealth Management unit in New York. Puerto Rico and federal officials are discussing the possible issuance of new bonds administered by the Treasury to help restructure the commonwealth’s debt, with federal officials overseeing a portion of the island’s tax collections that would be used to repay the securities. Read more.
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