Argentina

A group of bondholders seeking to block a consent solicitation from Argentine utility Edenor could grow in number amid the lack of engagement between the company and its creditors, sources close to the situation told GlobalCapital.

A group of bondholders has hired lawyers in an effort to block a proposed consent solicitation from Argentine utility Edenor that seeks to free the issuer of its obligation to repurchase its bonds after a change of control provision in the indenture was triggered.

The Argentine province of Chaco wrapped up a debt restructuring on Thursday after more than 90% of its bondholders agreed to push out the maturity and reduce the coupon of its $250m 2024s. But the Province of Buenos Aires continued to frustrate bondholders, who said negotiations have stalled more than a year after the country’s largest regional government defaulted.

Analysts said that Argentina’s deal to postpone $2bn of debt owed to the Paris Club was a credit positive, though it was not enough to halt another recent fall in the sovereign’s bond prices as the medium-term likelihood of a default remains high.

Argentine dairy company Mastellone Hermanos will push ahead with a distressed debt exchange after holders of an additional $3m of its 2021 bonds agreed to participate in the swap since last week’s early-bird deadline. The extra participation means the minimum take-up threshold for the offer has been reached.

Mastellone Hermanos, the largest dairy company in Argentina, has fallen short of getting the bondholder support it needs for its proposed distressed exchange offer. The borrower, which is dealing with the fallout from capital controls in its home country, needs the support of another 1.47% of its bondholders to proceed with the offer.

Official and multilateral lenders are taking a lenient stance on perennial defaulter Argentina but bond investors are increasingly sceptical whether the IMF programme that the sovereign says it wants will turn its fiscal position around. Markets are pricing in another default within a few years, despite a rebound in bonds this week, while eccentric policy decisions continue to frustrate bondholders.

Argentine sovereign bonds rallied for a third consecutive day on Tuesday amid expectations that the Paris Club group of official creditors will show leniency over a looming $2.4bn payment. But some in the market saw more value in the country's provincial bonds, and the Province of Buenos Aires hinted after the close that it is edging closer to agreement with its bondholders after more than a year in default.

The Province of Buenos Aires extended the participation of its restructuring offer for the 16th time this week, but bondholders denied the province's claim that they had requested the extension.

Oil and gas producer Pan American Energy sold $300m of six year bonds on Tuesday in the first international new issue from an Argentine borrower since July 2019, surprising some market participants who had been sceptical about its chances.

Oil and gas producer Pan American Energy is looking to become the first Argentine company to issue international bonds this year, though it is the company’s operations in Bolivia and Mexico that may enable it to dodge the distress in its home country.

Mexico’s deputy finance minister Gabriel Yorio told GlobalCapital on Wednesday that a block of Latin American countries was forming to ensure that the plight of middle-income economies was not forgotten as the world looks for ways to alleviate financial pressures on developing countries.