Buenos Aires Scares Creditors Into Accepting Bond Swap
- Province got an accord for $7.1 billion in defaulted bonds
- Governor reviled by investors succeeds with ‘coercive’ deal
This article is for subscribers only.
Axel Kicillof, the outspoken governor of Buenos Aires, called journalists to one of the province’s opulent 19th-century mansions and conceded defeat.
It was early 2020, just weeks before the pandemic hit, and Kicillof, a man reviled in investing circles for his brash negotiating style when he was economy minister during Argentina’s default a decade ago, was once again doing battle with creditors. This time around, he lamented bondholders’ “enormous intransigence” in refusing his province’s request to delay a $250 million bond payment.