7 News Belize

Superbond Common Ground
posted (February 28, 2017)
Belize may have missed its 26 million dollar Superbond payment eight days ago, but the 30 day grace period isn't over, and tonight, there is news of real progress on Superbond negotiations. According to a financial news report from "Debtwire" in the US, Charles Blitzer, the special advisor to the creditor committee is referenced as saying that the government of Belize and a committee of bondholders have "bridged" some of their differences toward a…restructuring.

This follows up on what the PM told us when he said that he was optimistic that an agreement with the bondholders could be reached before the end of the grace period.

Blitzer told Debtwire, quote, "'The prime minister is correct that progress was made. The committee is continuing to work hard with the government and their advisors to close the remaining gaps as soon as possible." End quote.

So, there are signals from both sides that a compromise is being hammered out, and it may mean that government has to sweeten up on its offer to bondholders. As we've reported that proposal is to repay the principal in three equal annual installments 20 years from now, between 2036 and 2038, and fixing the interest rate at 4% per annum, lower than the current rate of 5%, and the August 2017 step-up rate of 6.76%.

On Friday, Moody's Investor Service warned, quote, "Given Belize's low potential growth (1.5%-2%), our projections indicate that Belize's debt burden is unsustainable…indicating that losses to bondholders would be considerable.

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7 News Belize