Court-appointed mediator Daniel Pollack said the failure triggered an imminent default that, among other things, would hurt the Argentine economy as well as bondholders who were not part of the dispute.
"The full consequences of default are not predictable, but they are certainly not positive," Pollack said.
A US court ruling previously blocked Argentina from making $539m in interest payments, due by midnight on Wednesday, to the majority of bondholders until a deal with the hedge fund creditors was reached.
The hedge funds reject the restructuring accepted by 93 percent of bondholders and are demanding a full pay-out of $1.5bn on bonds they hold.
Cristina Fernandez, Argentina's president, had long refused to negotiate with the hedge funds, calling them "vultures" for picking on the carcass of the country's record $100bn default in 2001.
There was no immediate comment from the hedge funds.
'World will keep on spinning'
Axel Kicillof, Argentina's economy minister, emerged from the meeting with Pollack and creditors with an air of defiance, saying his government could find no middle ground.
"We're not going to sign an agreement that jeopardizes the future of all Argentines," Kicillof said.
"Argentines can remain calm because tomorrow will just be another day and the world will keep on spinning."
Kicillof said the hedge funds refused a compromise offer to settle their claim, although he gave no details of that proposal.
He said the hedge funds would not agree to a stay of the court order to allow Argentina, which is struggling with recession, a shortage of dollars and one of the world's highest inflation rates, to make the interest payments by Wednesday night's deadline.
- Kicillof also dismissed a decision by ratings agency Standard & Poor's to downgrade Argentina's foreign currency credit rating to "selective default" because of the missed interest payments.
'Risk and uncertainty'
The hedge funds, known as holdouts and led by New York billionaire Paul Singer's NML Capital, have spent more than a decade litigating for payment in full rather than agreeing to provide Argentina with debt relief.
- They sent lawyers around the world trying to force Argentina to pay its defaulted debts and were able to get a court in Ghana to temporarily seize an Argentine naval training ship.
- The threat of seizures forced Fernandez to stop using her presidential plane and instead fly on private jets.
"It is an unfortunate situation which is pushing the country into another default," said Alberto Ramos, Latin America analyst at Goldman Sachs.
"As defaults go, we all know when we get into one but it is very unclear when and how to get out of it. We just added another layer of risk and uncertainty to a macro economy that was already struggling.
"This puts us on a path of unpredictable economic and financial consequences. But nothing will last forever. At some point the parts involved will hopefully sort this out."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/07/argentina-set-turmoil-as-debt-talks-fail-20147312405571195.html"As defaults go, we all know when we get into one but it is very unclear when and how to get out of it. We just added another layer of risk and uncertainty to a macro economy that was already struggling.
"This puts us on a path of unpredictable economic and financial consequences. But nothing will last forever. At some point the parts involved will hopefully sort this out."
31/7/14
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Argentina blames US mediator for debt default...
ReplyDeleteArgentina has blamed the US for its debt default, calling the mediator in failed talks "incompetent".
Cabinet Chief Jorge Capitanich said his country was considering opening proceedings at international tribunals in The Hague after it was declared to be in technical default.
The announcement came just hours after last-minute talks in New York with a group of bond-holders failed.
The bond-holders are demanding a full pay-out of $1.3bn (£766m).
Argentina says the bond-holders are "vultures" using the South American country's debt problems to make a big profit.
The investors are US hedge funds that bought debt cheaply after Argentina's economic crisis in 2001-2002.
They are also known as "hold-outs" because they did not sign up to a restructuring of debt which the majority of bond-holders agreed to in 2005 and 2010.
Under that deal, investors agreed to settle for about a third of what they were originally owed.............http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28587653
31/7/14
Argentina no está en default, sino en un limbo creado por el fallo errático y confuso de Griesa"...
ReplyDelete"Por una cuestión de transparencia, los fondos buitre deberían explicitar qué fondos tienen, porque en términos de mercado, sacar ventaja es absolutamente ilegal acá y en los Estados Unidos", indicó Arrigoni a Télam.
En ese sentido, precisó que "los fondos buitre tienen en su poder bonos no reestructurados de la deuda por los cuales pretenden cobrar la totalidad de su valor", más intereses y punitorios.
Pero remarcó que "también es probable que estos fondos sean propietarios de seguros de default y también de bonos reestructurados de la deuda".
De esta manera, subrayó que "con esto, es posible que busquen que Argentina entre en default para cobrar los seguros, y después que se violen las cláusulas RUFO (que prohíben un pago mejor al de los canjes de 2005 y 2010) para reclamar ellos mismos un valor mayor por los bonos reestructurados que tienen".
"La mejor definición para la situación que creó el juez Griesa es que estamos en un limbo", señaló Arrigoni, quien destacó que "si el juez estuviera seguro de que la plata le corresponde a un tercero, se daría vuelta y se la daría a los buitres. Y no está seguro de eso".
Además, puntualizó que Griesa "va liberando de a uno a los bancos" para que permitan a los acreedores acceder al cobro de la deuda abonada por el Estado argentino.
En ese sentido, consideró que el del magistrado estadounidense es "un comportamiento errático, que confunde mucho y no es claro", porque destacó que "en un proceso judicial normal, se embarga para pagar lo que reclaman los acreedores".
"Esto en cambio va tomando forma de elemento de presión para trabar la reestructuración de la deuda argentina", concluyó el analista. ...................http://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201408/73657-argentina-no-esta-en-default-sino-en-un-limbo-creado-por-el-fallo-erratico-y-confuso-de-griesa.html