The executive director of Puerto Rico’s federally created financial oversight board said that a plan to restructure the U.S. commonwealth’s core government debt likely cannot be done by the end of April, Reuters reported. An attorney for the board told a U.S. judge who is hearing Puerto Rico’s bankruptcy cases that a draft plan was expected next month, according to local media reports. However, the oversight board’s executive director, Natalie Jaresko, said the attorney meant to say that the plan could be filed with the court “at best” in April. “I don’t think it’s highly realistic to do this by the end of April,” Jaresko said, adding that board’s goal is to seek court confirmation of a plan before year end. Negotiations are ongoing with creditors over an adjustment plan for roughly $13 billion of general obligation debt and almost $50 billion in unfunded pension obligations, although the board has asked the court to void more than $6 billion of GO bonds issued in 2012 and 2014. “We’re trying not to do a cramdown, but I don’t know where that’s going to end up in the end,” Jaresko said, referring to a process where an adjustment plan could be imposed on certain creditors.
