Puerto Rico in Distress

ABI Analysis

Puerto Rico’s publicly owned electric monopoly presented creditors with a restructuring plan, a month before a roughly $400 million payment comes due that analysts say the utility can’t pay, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

Rather than pass a bill that bears directly on ongoing negotiations between Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and its bondholders, Congress should use this opportunity to reconsider every aspect of the U.S. relationship with Puerto Rico, according to a Forbes.com commentary today.

A consortium of York Capital Management, NRG Energy Inc and ITC Holdings Corp have proposed investing as much as $3.5 billion in Puerto Rico's electrical infrastructure, Reuters reported yesterday. The island's electricity is supplied by struggling electric power authority PREPA, which has debt of around $9 billion and is due to present creditors with a business plan on Monday.

Puerto Rico’s $72 billion debt saga has become a booming business for Washington, D.C., lobbyists, who are developing websites, creating advertisements and lining up the support of conservative advocacy groups, Bloomberg News reported today.