BUENOS AIRES/LONDON (Reuters) – Argentina will give the mainly European-based 1% of investors left out of its recent debt restructuring the chance to sign up on the same terms as the other 99%, an economy ministry official said.
Latin America’s third largest economy completed its ninth sovereign default last month but a handful of European Union- and UK-based “retail” investors were omitted, along with some Japanese bondholders, because of certain regulation and language issues.
Some of those holders had been growing concerned that they could either be left in limbo or receive reduced terms because the offer accepted by heavyweight funds such as BlackRock, GMO, Fidelity and Ashmore incentivised immediate sign-up.
The situation had also raised questions about whether the EU’s MiFID II regulations had complicated matters, making it a potentially unwanted precedent with restructurings also possibly looming for other hard-up countries.
“The offer did not reach the European retailer because it was not registered in Europe,” a source at the economy ministry, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
“But (finance secretary) Diego Bastourre has already said that they will make contact with all those who by action or omission did not enter the exchange so that they can benefit from the same conditions as the remaining 99%.”
(Reporting by Marc Jones in London and Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
