The Ministry of Economy successfully completed a voluntary exchange of debt securities with maturities scheduled for the first quarter of the yearin which it managed to extend the payment term of almost $3 billion on a total amount estimated at around $4.3 billion.
The National Treasury had to face maturities for 1.1 trillion pesos in January; $1.2 trillion in February and another $2 trillion in March and after this conversion operation managed to reduce the amounts to $0.39 trillion, $0.42 trillion and $0.6 trillion respectively.
Based on these numbers, The Palacio de Hacienda managed to extend the maturity terms of 69.7% of the total titles tendered.
The portfolio led by Sergio Massa described this conversion operation as “successful”, in which a total of 1,079 offers were received, representing a total face value of $1.6 trillion.
From Economy, the participation of the Santander and Galicia banks and, to a lesser extent, Nuevo Banco de Santa Fe, Banco San Juan and Banco Macro stood out.
To attract the interest of investors, Economía offered various securities, some of them at a fixed rate, others adjustable by CER (inflation) or the variation of the dollar, and also Dual Bonds, which allow the holder to choose if they want to be paid by the evolution of prices or based on the evolution of the price of the US currency.
The Economy proposal to make the conversion of eight bonds with maturities scheduled for the first quarter attractive consisted of two baskets of titles, to which a third was added at the last moment.
The first basket was made up of Discount Bills (Ledes) and integrated 25% by one maturing in April of this year (S28A3)35% with the one that expires in May (S31Y3), and 40% with a new one that is paid in June 2023 (S30J3).
The second option consisted of Dual Bonds (adjustable by dollar or inflation): 35% with the one paid in July (TDL23), 35% with the one that expires in September (TDS23) and another 30% with a DUAL that expires in February 2024 (TDF24).
Meanwhile, the third option, added on Monday after conversations with market-forming entities, consisted of CER-adjustable Treasury Bills (Lecer) for similar titles but maturing next June (X1673).
This exchange was the third carried out by the Economy portfolio since Massa took over it, at the beginning of last August. After the conversion operation completed today, the next tender will take place on Wednesday, January 18, as it was previously reported in the schedule for the first half of 2023.
According to data from the consultancy Aurum Valores, The maturities in pesos that the Treasury faced with the private sector during the first quarter of 2023 amount to almost $2.7 trillion: in January about $924,000 million mature, in February another $834,000 million, and in March about $933,000 million.
When adding the maturities of titles that the public sector itself has in its possession, the commitments amount to almost $4.3 trillion.
Until October of last year, the last official record, the national State debt amounted to US$381,684 million, while in the same month of 2021 it reached US$346,672 million.
On that occasion, the Ministry of Economy reported that the debt in pesos, which is adjusted for inflation, amounted to US$ 49,921 million.
