Economy

Argentina to release offer for bondholders in early March

Guzmán presented the debt renegotiation schedule, one of the biggest challenges for President Alberto Fernández. IMF delegation to arrive in mid-February.
LPO (Buenos Aires)

Argentina's Finance Minister Martín Guzmán confirmed that the proposal to pay bondholders will be announced in the second week of March and the deadline for accepting it will expire at the end of that month.

In this way, the deadline imposed by President Alberto Fernández is hereby ratified, when he stated that "from now until March 31 we will be very clear about how we are, because we will also have the foreign debt resolved".

The announcement by the Minister of Economy was made in the context of a curious presentation of a "schedule of actions for the management of the process of restoring the sustainability of the external public debt".

There, he anticipated the next movements that will take place around the renegotiation process. The first week of February includes a meeting with the head of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, which will take place in the Vatican. He also plans the discussion of the debt law in the Senate.

Guzmán says that the Debt Sustainability Unit will issue formal invitations "to Information Agents, Financial Advisors and Placement Banks to present offers of advice and/or assistance regarding the process contemplated" in the law.

Secondly, the information agents will be selected based on the proposals received. The first IMF mission to Argentina this year will be received between February 12 and 14, and Guzmán will appear before Congress.

In March, before the official presentation, "the final structure of the Offer with the objective of restoring the sustainability of the foreign public debt" will be determined and a Q&A session will be opened through the Distribution Agents.