In a new attempt to ease exchange rate pressures, with the blue dollar at a higher nominal value, the Government has resumed talks to advance the loans up to US$2,500 million with foreign entities.
It concerns four offerings qThey appeared in the last few hours after the buyback of public debt launched last week, a measure with which Sergio Massa seeks to reduce the cost of external financing and contain the dollar.
In recent days, the Ministry of the Economy has received several calls to continue the negotiations that began in August. At the time, Massa announced that he was seeking financing with at least five entities for approximately $2 billion. buy back debt and strengthen reserves.
From January 15th the Central Bank’s net reserves amounted to approximately US$6,000 million and the $1,000 million to buy back the bonds is flowing out of there. Gross reserves amount to US$42,655 million.
Now, they are studying four offers of Repurchase Agreement (Repo)credits where the borrower generally has to deliver dollar bonds as collateral.
Specifically, Economía dialogues with an Asian institution, a New York entity, a large investment fund and a European bank. What is evaluated is the rate, the type of guarantee (collateral) and the amount offered, which in total amounts to 2.5 billion dollars. “The four offers are in a period of confidentiality, the Ministry of the Economy is studying the proposal and you have two weeks to accept it‘, official sources said.
In the minister’s team they believe that the debt repurchase of up to 1,000 million dollars has generated better conditions for negotiating the Repo. Since the announcement, the Treasury has obtained 130 million dollars in dollar securities and the intention is to continue with these operations, despite the suspicions it has aroused in the opposition and in the internal investigation that the CNV has launched at the request of Massa .
“Global Bonds are needed as collateral for a Repo,” they confirmed in an official dispatch.
Precisely, the official calculation is that $1,000 million of bonds are required for a “buyback” credit and $2 of bonds for every $1 for a reserve-increasing loan. Given the price of the bonds and a possible one-year renewable term, the Central Bank should contribute in this case an endorsement of US$10,000 million to receive US$2,500 million, according to sources familiar with the deal.
The financial cost It is another of the points that is negotiated with reservations. Last year was reshuffled in the market a rate between 8 and 10% from Argentine risk, which reached 2,400 basis points. It was a higher cost than in 2016, when a $5 billion repo was agreed with seven banks at a rate of 6.7% for 11 months. Today, with a country risk of around 1,800 points, it is estimated so the rate would be between 8% and double digits for a rolling year.
NEITHER
Source: Clarin
