Law Passed for the Reopening of Argentine Sovereign Debt Exchange

On September 23, 2012 Law No. 26,886 which orders the reopening of the exchange of Sovereign Bonds issued by the Republic of Argentina which are currently in default. The new law authorizes the Executive Branch, by means of the Ministry of Economy and Public Finance, to carry out all the necessary acts for such purposes and suspends the effects of Law No. 26,017 (the “Lock Law”) that restricts the reopening of a debt exchange. Please see our article“Reopening of Sovereign Debt Exchange” published in Marval News # 131 dated August 30, 2013 for more details of the background, precedents and the US Court of Appeals’ ruling in re: “NML Capital, Ltd. v. Republic of Argentina”.

The bill was filed by the Argentine Executive Branch and approved by the Argentine Congress after a fast legislative process. The original bill was approved by the Senate on September 4, 2013 and delivered to the House of Representatives with only one amendment: the power to order the closing of the new debt exchange is granted to Congress, whereas in the original bill such power was granted to the Executive Branch. The House of Representatives approved the bill on September 11, 2013.

The Executive Branch should now provide the terms and conditions of this third exchange offer and carry out the necessary acts to implement it.