A Bond Payment Is 85 Days Late and Argentina Holders Are Fed Up
- Real estate firm IRSA made a principal payment in September
- But FX controls have kept offshore investors from getting cash
Pedestrians are reflected in the window of a currency exchange in Buenos Aires.
Photographer: Diego Levy/Bloomberg
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After the bulk of a $135 million bond payment they were owed was blocked by a slew of new capital controls, most investors in Argentine real estate firm IRSA were begrudgingly prepared to wait the situation out.
The nation was in the middle of another potential currency crisis, after all, and officials were rushing to implement new foreign-exchange rules in an effort to get a handle on the peso. Many were willing to give the country the benefit of the doubt, expecting policy makers to eventually tweak the rules to avoid preventing companies from repaying their obligations.