The shadow of vulture funds has returned to fly over Argentina in the last few hours. In three different failures issued this Monday, the American Justice ordered the payment to bondholders with funds that the State deposited with the Federal Reserve (FED), seized Argentine assets and it was learned that a group of funds seeks resources embargoed by the Central Bank.
In this way, the judge of the Southern District Court of New York, Loretta Preska, It had been active in debt claims that defaulted since 2001 after Adolfo Rodríguez Saá declared a cessation of payments. These are funds that rejected restructuring swaps in 2005 and 2010 during the governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner.
At night, Prezka ordered to pay Bybrook, Hazelton and White Hawthorn the sum of US$138 million, according to Sebastián Maril, director of Latam Advisors. The funds have been in litigation for some time and are the same ones that filed a lawsuit in 2019 considering that Argentina revised statistics on activity level in 2013 to avoid paying a GDP bond.
The other novelty was the seizure ordered by Preska of Argentine assets in New York for 96 million dollars of a total of US$300 million deposited with the FED. Within the litigation process, the seizure represents a subsequent phase to the order for payment. Since Argentina appeals and does not pay, in this case the bainbridge fund He came forward with the request for an embargo, which was accepted.
bainbridge asked to seize an Argentine building last year in Washington and is now targeting Argentine funds at the New York Federal Reserve. There is deposited the collateral for the issue of Brady bonds, a debt restructuring plan of Latin American countries with commercial banks after the crisis of the 80s.
In 1992, Argentina issued US$30 billion over 30 years, which was subsequently restructured. The bonds were named after Nicholas Brady, a broker who became US Treasury Secretary and the person charged with executing the plan that ended in most cases heavily in debt, although it did allow Argentina to refinance itself.
“When Argentina issued the Brady bonds, to guarantee their payment, the bonds had US Treasury bills as collateral. Argentina restructured 99.99% and $70 million remained outstanding, which matures on March 31, and the collateral on those bonds appreciated to $300 million,” Maril explained.
lastfive funds aim to raise $400 million in final judgments through embargoes approved by Preska. The novelty in this case is that on Monday it was learned that the assets belong to the Central Bank, which until now was confidential. Among the funds stands out Attestor Master Value, based in the Cayman Islands.
Judge Thomas Griesa’s successor authorized the embargo in 2021 at the request of lawyer Dennis Hranitzky, who had already participated in another case against the Argentine state, when he represented the NML-Elliott Capital Management fund and managed to have the confiscation of the Frigate Libertad in Ghana in 2012 Argentina appealed, but Attestor maintains dispute over Argentine assets with Bainbridge.
With the latest judgments and embargoes in progressArgentina already faces US$980 million in asset freeze claims, including the expropriation of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the 2005 and 2010 restructuring, multinational claims before ICSID and lawsuits before the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, according to calculations by Latam Advisors
On the other hand, Prezka must also decide the outcome of the process for theto the expropriation of YPF in 2012, when Cristina Kirchner was president. Argentina has already paid $5,000 in bonuses to Repsol, but a dispute arose in 2015 over other injured shareholders. “The lawsuit can range from $100 million to $19.350 million, it all depends on whether or not there is a settlement,” Maril said.
Source: Clarin
