Mediation over Puerto Rico’s central government debt is making progress, a Puerto Rico Oversight Board attorney said Wednesday.
Puerto Rico bankruptcy judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered parties involved with the central government debt types to go into mediation in July.
Board attorney Martin Bienenstock said it was possible that in the coming month there would be an announcement manifesting mediation progress. Bienenstock, a partner at Proskauer Rose, made the comment in Wednesday’s Title III omnibus bankruptcy hearing in the U.S. District Court for Puerto Rico.
Bienenstock also said he hoped the board would make a Title VI bankruptcy filing for the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company sometime after March.
In the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, Title III lays out a traditional court-supervised bankruptcy process. Title VI lays out a process for creditors to negotiate and approve agreements before the board presents them to the court.
Also on Wednesday, Swain ordered some changes to how she will deal with issues around revenue bonds, with bonds from the Highways and Transportation Authority, Puerto Rico Infrastructure Finance Authority, and Convention Center District Authority affected.
Swain said that instead of holding a hearing about all revenue bond topics on Feb. 27, there would be a preliminary hearing on March 5 and maybe March 6 and that it would only covers issues of standing and security interest. She said she wanted a “meet and confer” meeting with parties by Feb. 7.
Swain indicated that she would push back arguments around lifting stays on litigation for the revenue bonds to a date after March 6.
Judge Barbara Hauser told the hearing that her mediation team planned to make recommendations concerning the treatment of the revenue bonds in its anticipated Feb. 10 report.
Finally, Swain gave leave to bond insurer Ambac Assurance to amend a motion concerning the application of the automatic stay to the revenues securing the PRIFA rum tax bonds. Board lawyers had opposed Ambac’s motion to be allowed to submit its supplement.
