Billionaire Paul Singer isn’t buying Argentina’s latest sob story.
The hedge-fund mogul urged a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday to deny the embattled country’s request to delay a court order forcing it to pay him and other holdout creditors $1.65 billion.
Singer’s lawyers told Judge Thomas Griesa that Argentina’s request for a stay is nothing more than a stalling tactic while it only hints at a willingness to negotiate with creditors who refused to go along with a debt swap.
“Argentina’s officials have yet to engage in any way with the principals of its creditors or even take steps to schedule such a meeting,” Singer’s lawyer, Robert Cohen of Dechert, wrote.
While Argentina told Griesa a stay would allow negotiations to proceed, Cohen said “just the opposite is true.”
A stay would allow the country to go ahead with a $900 million payment on June 30 to the bondholders who agreed in 2005 and 2010 to exchange their defaulted bonds for new ones of much lesser value.
A small group of holdouts, led by Singer, refused and have been suing to be paid in full. The US courts have ruled that Argentina must pay the holdouts when it pays other creditors.
Singer’s lawyer said that Argentina actually has until July 30 to make that payment before it will be in default — giving it ample time to negotiate.
“While granting a stay is not necessary for negotiation, it would serve to create more time for Argentina to develop evasion plans which it has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to do,” Cohen wrote.
Argentina contends a payment to the holdouts could trigger another $135 billion in claims because the exchange bondholders could sue to get the same terms as Singer.