Hearing in new york

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Griesa urges gov’t to resume debt talks

United States District Judge Thomas Griesa urged Argentina to resume talks to settle the litigation with the “vulture” funds, who urged him to expand to nearly US$8 billion the amount the country has to pay them to service its restructured debt.

In a new hearing in New York, Argentina’s lawyers also rejected a proposal by “vulture” fund Elliott Management to pay the country’s debt on the long-term and not in one single payment.

Griesa did not reference Sunday’s election to replace President Cristina Kirchner Fernández de Kirchner. But he noted Argentina previously declined to participate in settlement negotiations and said he assumed “at this late date in this very lengthy litigation that attitude is over with.”

“The way to ultimately resolve this litigation must come through settlement,” Griesa said.

The hearing concerned whether Griesa should order Argentina to pay 530 creditors seeking US$6.15 billion when it services its restructured debt. Those creditors were seeking the same treatment as Elliott and Aurelius the country was ordered to pay US$1.33 billion plus interest.

Robert Cohen, a lawyer for Elliott Management, argued yesterday that expanding the amount of debt subject to an injunction would be a “plus not a minus” in facilitating a settlement. Carmine Boccuzzi, Argentina’s lawyer, countered that doing so would complicate settlement talks by expanding the number of holdouts with “veto power” over a deal.

Herald with Reuters