Argentina’s Senate today approved a plan to end a long-running legal dispute with U.S. hedge funds, handing President Mauricio Macri his first big victory in a Congress dominated by the opposition, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Senate voted 54 to 16 to let Macri issue $12 billion in bonds and use part of that to pay $4.65 billion to the hedge funds, which had sued Argentina for not paying out on bonds they bought after the country defaulted on its debt 15 years ago. The vote, the last domestic hurdle Macri faced in making a deal, allows Argentina to tap global credit markets for the first time since 2001. Assuming there are no additional legal obstacles in U.S. courts, a settlement would bring almost immediate relief to cash-strapped provincial governments and companies that for years were effectively cut off from international credit markets.
