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US$180 million more entered the swap (now it is at 67%)
Ambito Financiero
June 28, 2010

The debt swap added another US$180 million, and this way, the total adhesion added up to 66.8% versus the 66% that had been announced when the transaction ended. This way, the acceptance of the swap increased from US$12.045 billion to US$12.225 billion.

The orders correspond to investors that decided to enter at the last minute and came into the operation on June 22nd. However, they hadn't been accounted for in the figure that the Economy Ministry released preliminarily.

The news was received during the weekend by Economy Minister Amado Boudou, in Toronto, where he was participating together with the Argentine delegation at the G-20 presidential summit.

Enthusiasm

At the Palacio de Hacienda they were further enthused by the possibility of the acceptance level even being higher than the 66.8%, while this will depend on the final numbers from the report of Bank of New York (BONY), which is acting as the depository agent for the transaction.

It's possible that at least one part of it until today would be from "retenders", or those bondholders that had entered the swap in 2005 but decided to accept this new offer, who would be included in the universe that entered the transaction. If this will happen, it wouldn't be odd that finally the acceptance of the swap would comfortably surpass 67%.

In an interview with this newspaper before beginning his trek back to Buenos Aires, Boudou went back to pondering the result of the operation: "If we consider that starting with the 20% of the bondholders that didn't enter the swap in 2005 there were vulture funds that filed lawsuits against Argentina, it never made sense for some to speculate on an acceptance of 80% or more. Considering this factor, the result of the swap was excellent."

And while he offered no details, the minister said that "a judicial strategy is being prepared to combat the bondholders that are continuing to sue Argentina. But we aren't going to reveal it," he added, "while it isn't ready, because it would alert the vultures."

At the Economy Ministry they are thinking, in a parallel form, of leaving open a window for those investors that didn't accept the operation in this second instance even to let them enter in the future. For that, obviously, they will have to renounce any judicial claim. "From today's view, there is nothing planned," Boudou answered, while he also left open the possibility.

These are the other statements that the Economy Minister made to this newspaper at the end of his participation in the G-20 summit. In addition to the swap, he spoke of the Paris Club negotiations and the conclusions of this summit:

"The truth is that we didn't exactly move ahead with the issue of the Paris Club, because it had nothing to do with this meeting. But I did speak with various ministers that had words of praise for the result we got in the swap."

"We agree with the writing of the final document of the G-20, where it took the position of protecting the recovery of the economy before insisting on the need to implement tough cuts in the central economies. It imposed, in this sense, the views of the United States, which is much closer to our own position."

"At Argentina's request, in the document there appears a reference to the need to reinforce the social security net at such a complex time."

"We also strongly support the warning about the role of the credit risk agencies and about fiscal paradises. On this last point, the countries committed to bring forward concrete measures with greater controls to the next presidential meeting of the G-20 in November."

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