Puerto Rico’s latest turnaround plan boosts the insolvent U.S. territory’s projected ability to pay debt, but the plan’s absence of pension cuts and layoffs means some alterations may be in store, courtesy of the island’s oversight board, Reuters reported. The plan, published on Thursday, forecasts a cumulative surplus of $6.3 billion through fiscal year 2023, and $7.36 billion after accounting for non-recurring items. That projection started as a deficit in January, and has climbed incrementally through a handful of draft plans. Puerto Rico, which is in bankruptcy with $120 billion in debt while it struggles to recover from the devastation caused last September by Hurricane Maria, is required to submit a turnaround plan as a basis for planned restructuring talks with bondholders. Puerto Rico’s benchmark GO bond traded at 43 cents on the dollar on Friday, up from a close of 41.06 cents on Thursday , according to Thomson Reuters. It had been trading around 60 cents before Maria hit.
