Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Puerto Rico’s main electricity provider can’t pay $1.13 billion due to creditors between now and July 1 without approval of an unprecedented debt-restructuring agreement reached at the end of December, according to Lisa Donahue, the agency’s chief restructuring officer, Bloomberg News reported today.

Insurers of Puerto Rican bonds sued the U.S. commonwealth late Thursday over its recent debt default, the first lawsuit against the island since its governor called its $70 billion debt load "unpayable" last June, Reuters reported today. The lawsuit by Assured Guaranty and Ambac Financial, filed in U.S. federal court in Puerto Rico, asks a judge to declare that Puerto Rico violated the U.S.

Puerto Rico's latest default meant a $10.3 million hit for Ambac Financial (AMBC.O), which insures some of the debt the island's infrastructure authority PRIFA failed to pay on Monday, Reuters reported yesterday. Ambac had exposure to $10.3 million of PRIFA debt due on Monday, according to a Nov. 30 company report.

Puerto Rico’s general-obligation bonds rallied, with some yields falling to the lowest since July, after officials said the commonwealth would pay all that it owed on the constitutionally protected debt while missing payments on other securities, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.