© Reuters. PDVSA suspends bond maturity for 5 years or until sanctions are lifted
Caracas, Mar 30 (EFE).- The state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) suspended from Thursday the maturity of several bonds and execution actions for five years or up to 90 days after the United States lifts all sanctions against the company, as well as all actions “that prevent the restructuring” of the debt.
“As of the date of this announcement (…), all statutes of limitation and expiration applicable to the bonds and enforcement actions, whether under New York law, Venezuelan law or any other, will be deferred and suspended,” says a statement from the state company.
The “postponement and suspension”, it continued, “will expire and cease to have force and effect (…) after 90 days” after the US Government “withdraws all its unilateral coercive measures and any other coercive or restrictive measures implemented against the issuer”, or until “December 31, 2028”.
Pdvsa published a summary of the outstanding bonds, issued since 1998, which amount to 28,763 million dollars and have different interest rates, ranging from 5.3% to one of 12.75% issued in 2011, whose original date due date was February 17, 2022.
The sanctions imposed on Venezuela prevent the government of Nicolás Maduro and the oil company, among other things, from negotiating with Americans or companies that do business in the US, which does not allow a direct debt restructuring with a large number of bondholders.
In addition, the country went into “partial default” on its debt in 2017, according to risk rating agencies, something that the Venezuelan Executive also attributes to the restrictions associated with the sanctions.