Thursday, April 7, 2016

Gov't to begin five-day roadshow in UK, US in bond market return

Argentina will begin meeting investors Monday as it returns to the international bond market for the first time in 15 years and closes the book on a long and bitter battle with its creditors.

Government officials will hold a five-day roadshow in the UK and the US as it preps a new bond expected to raise US$12 billion - or more - to help pay off holdouts who had rejected a debt restructuring.

Finance Secretary Luis Caputo and Undersecretary Santiago Bausili will each lead teams meeting with investors in London, Boston, New York, Washington and Los Angeles, the Finances and Revenue Ministry commanded by Alfonso Prat Gay announced in a statement released today.

Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan and Santander are arranging the meetings, but few other details were immediately available.

At US$12bn, the transaction would be the largest ever from an emerging markets borrower, according to Thomson Reuters data.

NML Capital, a unit of Paul Singer's Elliott Management, and Aurelius Capital led a decade-long US court fight that rejected the debt restructuring and demanded a far larger payout.

The administration of previous president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner vowed never to pay, and the standoff kept the country locked out of the international debt markets for years.

But the election of the pro-business Macri changed all that, and the new president made reaching a deal with the holdouts a top priority of his nascent administration.

Argentina reached the agreement in March and now has until April 14 to pay US$4.65 billion to the main investors that were fighting the sovereign, though that deadline could be extended.

But the country has also reached other agreements with different investors, and will need even more cash to pay those bondholders.