Mutual funds are pouring back into Puerto Rico debt, a notable comeback for the U.S. commonwealth that’s exiting the biggest ever municipal bankruptcy after five years and that still struggles with an uncertain economy bled by population loss, Bloomberg News reported. Island officials are trying to make sure investors don’t leave. Puerto Rico is hosting its first annual event for bond holders since before its bankruptcy in 2017, hoping to show that it has put an end to the runaway deficits that drove it into ruin and locked it out of capital markets. Among its selling points: a sharply reduced debt load that’s giving it a fresh fiscal start. Mutual funds run by big-name firms like Nuveen and Invesco have been buying the island’s bonds because of the high yield they offer and the tax advantage the debt carries. This time though, the funds are going in with the knowledge that a federally-appointed financial oversight board — despised by territorial residents as a vestige of colonialism — will ensure that bondholders get repaid. At the two-day conference, commonwealth officials and local business leaders are looking to convince even more investors and industries such as biotech and data and technology to look past the deficit spending that pushed the island into bankruptcy and buy into an economy that slumped for more than a decade as it has been battered by hurricanes, earthquakes and political corruption.
