Creditors committee postpones default decision

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November 10, 2017 7:26 PM

A committee of Venezuelan creditors postponed until Monday a decision on whether state oil company PDVSA has officially defaulted on its debt payments.

The default declaration has come to be seen as almost inevitable as cash-strapped Venezuela's is struggling to service an estimated $150 billion in debt. The government of President Nicolas Maduro has called creditors to a meeting Monday to discuss restructuring the payments.

The so-called Determinations Committee, comprised of 15 financial firms, met in New York on Friday "to discuss whether a Failure to Pay Credit Event had occurred" with respect to PDVSA, according to the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

"The DC agreed to reconvene on Monday, November 13, 2017, at 12 pm (New York time) to continue the discussion of whether there is adequate Publicly Available Information to answer the submitted question."

The Maduro government had said it would make a $1.2 billion payment on a PDVSA bond November 2, but the funds never reached creditors. As a result, a group of investors who hold financial instruments that act as default insurance asked for a committee ruling of default to allow them to cash in.

About 70 percent of Venezuelan bondholders are North American, according to government figures. The government also has a deadline Friday for another $81 million on another PDVSA bond.

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