Buenos Aires Province hires Bank of Amercia, Citigroup for debt restructuring

Citigroup and Bank of America were selected by the Buenos Aires provincial government to renegotiate debt, it was reported today.

The provincial Economy Ministry stressed that the designation of both companies had been made to "assist the province of Buenos Aires in the process that seeks to give sustainability to the provincial public debt governed by foreign legislation.”

However, it clarified that the selection "is subject to contracting in compliance with administrative requirements."

In addition, the provincial Executive said that the firm D.F. King has been hired as an information agent, and that "progress continues to be made in the process of identifying holdings, in order to be able to establish a direct communication channel with as many holders as possible.”

Recently, Governor Axel Kicillof detailed that of the debt maturities scheduled for 2020, 67 percent (about US$2,274 billion dollars) corresponds to debt incurred between 2016 and 2019.

For the following years, he indicated that the debt generated in the management of Maria Eugenia Vidal represents 62 percent of the maturities of 2021 (for US$1,596 million dollars), 90 percent of the maturities of 2022 (for US$1,853 million) and 92 percent of the maturities of 2023 (for US$2,023 million).

He also noted that between 2008 and 2015, the province generated a debt of US$2.7 billion, while between 2016 and 2019, the amount rose to US$5.05 billion of the same currency, an increase of 87.1 percent.

"The debt burden is unsustainable. What happened in the province is one more chapter in the way the country got into debt during President Macri's administration," complained Kicillof.

The debt of the provinces in local and foreign currency is around US$26 billion: this year there are maturities of US$3.33 billion  and 126 billion pesos, according to private estimations.

- TIMES/NA