By leaving the upcoming bond swap open ended, the government seeks to repair its strained relationship with U.S. federal courts that have criticized its management of fallout from the country's default on $100 billion of sovereign debt in 2002.
U.S. judges have complained that Argentina's previous two restructurings in 2005 and 2010 included Lock Laws that offered only limited time windows for holders to exchange their bonds for new paper offering less attractive terms than the original defaulted debt.
Creditors holding 93 percent of the defaulted bonds accepted restructurings in 2005 and 2010 that give them less than 30 cents on the dollar but holdout creditors.
On Friday, Argentina lost an appeal of a U.S. court order requiring it to pay $1.33 billion to holdouts who refused to accept steep discounts on the defaulted debt. The government is appealing the ruling and trying to swap its foreign debt for Argentina bonds beyond the reach of U.S. law.
Argentina has so far avoided a new debt crisis thanks to the restraint of judges who last week surprised some observers with a stay order delaying implementation of their decision pending review by the U.S. Supreme Court.
cortesia wsj.com
The big problem could become future credit documentation, as not many US investors will want syndicated loan/bond indenture docs to have legal process in Argentina
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