By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Holders of Argentina’s 1.5 billion euro-denominated GDP warrants filed on Monday for U.S. courts to recognize English court judgments that hold Argentina liable for that debt.
Hedge funds holding around 48% of the securities issued between 2005 and 2014 sued Argentina in 2019 and London’s High Court ruled in their favor last October, leaving Argentina on the hook.
“While the claimants remain open to finding a consensual resolution with respect to the sums outstanding under the English Judgments … they intend to vigorously enforce their rights in any and all appropriate forums,” said a statement from law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, which represents certain holders.
In order to be able to enforce the judgments against Argentine assets in the United States, the U.S. court must recognize the outcome of the process in the English courts.
The statement says that to secure a $20 billion program with the International Monetary Fund announced in April, “it appears that Argentina evidently made representations to the Fund that it was engaged in active, good-faith efforts to resolve the English Judgments to address the Fund’s lending into arrears guidelines. No negotiations are ongoing, and to the extent Argentina represented that they were, that representation was incorrect.”
The IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Argentina misrepresented its efforts to clear this debt.
The Argentine government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Quinn Emanuel statement also cites the IMF program target of Argentina regaining access to international capital markets.
“There should not be, nor can there be in practice, any market access until and unless Argentina resolves its default under the English Judgments,” the statement said.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York; additional reporting by Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Editing by Mark Porter and Nick Zieminski)
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