Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy Fight Is About to Plunge Into the Unknown
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Bondholders push competing claims but island may void them all
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‘This is a government restructuring, not a court one’
Dealing with Puerto Rico’s crushing debt has started to resemble a circular firing squad.
Simply put, the bankrupt island can’t pay everything it owes, so creditors are taking aim at each other as they squabble over who will get what’s left. But the debt’s size and the tangled process invented to rescue Puerto Rico mean there’s no established rule book to shape what comes next.
Holders of general-obligation debt have declared their right to be paid first, owners of sales-tax bonds are squabbling with one another over who deserves priority, and they’re all up against the commonwealth’s leaders, who want the cash for essential services. Amid this melee, Puerto Rico’s federal overseers will have to choose between paying U.S. hedge funds everything they’re owed or keeping schools, water and electricity running…
Puerto Rico’s Bankruptcy Fight Is About to Plunge Into the Unknown
