Nicolle Yapur, Bloomberg News

CARACAS
EnergiesNet.com 24 2023

Investors in defaulted Venezuela bonds said a deal between the government and the opposition, followed by the US decision to ease some sanctions, creates a path toward an eventual debt restructuring process.

A group of creditors holding more than $11 billion of sovereign and state-owned oil firm PDVSA bonds said it is confident that the moves will “ultimately lead” to an orderly debt restructuring, according to a statement.

The committee “stands ready to engage constructively with all stakeholders to make progress to that end,” the group, which includes Fidelity Management & Research, T. Rowe Price, Mangart Capital Advisors, Greylock Capital Management, among others, wrote in a statement. 

Last week, President Nicolás Maduro reached a deal with opposition parties to work toward setting conditions for next year’s presidential election. The US then lifted a set of sanctions against Venezuela’s oil and gold production, as well as a four-year prohibition on US persons to trade the country’s defaulted debt in the secondary market. 

That decision prompted a rally in the nation’s bonds, with the price of some notes doubling on Thursday.

Still, the debt sits at deeply distressed levels with government notes trading around 19 cents on the dollar and PDVSA bonds being exchanged for 14 cents, according to traders and data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Washington doesn’t recognize the Maduro government and other US sanctions would have to be lifted before a restructuring process could begin, including removing a ban on issuing new debt in the US. The country began defaulting in 2017 on about $60 billion of debt. 

bloomberg.com 10 23 2023