Friday, April 17, 2015

Puerto Rico's PREPA taps reserve fund for quarterly payment

Puerto Rico's troubled utility, PREPA, made another withdrawal from its reserve account to make a quarterly bond payment on April 1, according to a regulatory filing posted by the utility.

While the withdrawal amounted to just $8.8 million, the filing posted on Wednesday shows the utility is remaining current on it debt payments ahead of a much larger bond payment of around $400 million which comes due on July 1 and that some analysts expect PREPA to miss.

The bulk of PREPA's more than $8 billion in outstanding debt has biannual bond payments. Three series of revenue bonds have quarterly due dates. They include a floating rate bond and taxable Build America Bonds .

PREPA entered into liquidity crisis last summer and first used its reserve last July, withdrawing $41.6 million to make a shortfall on its bond payments. That prompted debate over whether the utility has entered technical default.

PREPA is in discussion with its creditors over restructuring its debt and operations. Under the latest agreement reached on Wednesday, creditors said they will not call a default for the next 15 days while talks are ongoing. (Reporting by Edward Krudy; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Puerto Rico's PREPA taps reserve fund for quarterly payment

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