Puerto Rico bondholders and bond insurers repeated a request to the Puerto Rico Oversight Board to initiate immediate debt negotiations.
The Ad Hoc Group of GO Bondholders, which had requested the negotiations get started on March 27 or sooner, joined with other creditors in sending a letter Thursday that asked the board to start negotiations on April 3 at Kramer Levin's office in New York.
Thursday's letter was signed by a representative of funds managed by Franklin Advisers, Oppenheimer Funds, and Santander Asset Management; representatives of bond insurers National Public Finance Guarantee Corp., Syncora Guarantee, and Financial Guaranty Insurance Company; a representative of the Puerto Rico Funds; a representative of Goldman Sachs Asset Management; and a representative of the Ad Hoc Group of GO Bondholders.
The creditors again rejected the board's request for a mediator to oversee the negotiations. They said that it will take too long to set up the mediation ground rules and that there are only a few weeks to complete the debt negotiations.
The creditors signing the letter "have all agreed not to participate in a mediation that lacks basic process."
Debt negotiations would be part of the Puerto Rico, Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act's Title VI consensual debt negotiation process, which can run until May 1, when a stay on litigation allowed by PROMESA and the board will end.
