Puerto Rico stepped up preparations for a sale of as much as $3.5 billion in bonds, a test of the financially troubled island's ability to access credit markets, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. The U.S. commonwealth, which is not eligible to file for chapter 9 bankruptcy, has hired bankers to manage the bond offering.
Puerto Rico in Distress
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The White House is not considering a financial bailout for Puerto Rico, where chronic fiscal challenges have raised the specter of a Detroit-like bankruptcy, an Obama administration official said yesterday, Reuters reported. The island's woes have led credit rating agencies to say that they are considering labeling the U.S. territory's general obligation debt as junk bonds.
Puerto Rico, which is battling a financial crisis of high unemployment and a crushing debt load, is under pressure to show investors and credit-rating agencies that it can still borrow money from the capital markets, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday.
The owner of the Scrub Island resort in the British Virgin Islands is fighting its lender to use U.S. bankruptcy protection to rework its more than $130 million worth of debt, the Wall Street Journal reported today.