Sri Lanka enters into agreement with bond holders to restructure debt

Sri Lanka and sovereign bond holders have entered into an agreement to restructure US$14.43 billion in international sovereign bonds (ISBs) defaulted by the state with unpaid interest by introducing  new instruments linked to future gross domestic product growth, Finance Ministry sources confirmed on Thursday.

Bondholders have also agreed to an 11 per cent haircut on $1.889 billion of unpaid interest, in accordance with an earlier proposal, a high official closely associated with bond restructure negotiations, said.

Sri Lanka will exchange $12.55 billion on bonds with an initial hair cut of 28 per cent, which include bonds with macro-linked bonds connected future gross domestic product (GDP).

The Secretariat of Sri Lanka’s Official Creditor Committee will have to confirm the agreement which is the normal procedure to ensure comparability with their restructure terms and IMF staff on compliance with a debt sustainability analysis, he added.

The $12.25 billion ISBs will be exchanged for bonds with a face value of $9.04 billion with maturing dates from 2028 to 2038.

This includes eight state dependent bonds whose hair cut could improve to 15 per cent from 28 per cent. (Bandula)