By Jorgelina do Rosario and Rodrigo Campos
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s international committee of private creditors has sent the country’s authorities its first debt restructuring proposal involving more than $12 billion in outstanding bonds, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
This is the first bondholder proposal after the island nation
Details of the proposal were not immediately available.
Government representatives did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman representing the creditor committee declined to comment.
approximately 30 creditors including global investment firm Amundi Asset Management, BlackRock (NYSE:
BLK), HBK Capital Management and T. Rowe Price Associates.
Bondholders and government officials met this week in Washington, with legal and financial advisers from both sides present, two sources said.
Separately, the Paris Club of creditor governments said on Friday it aimed to start talks to restructure Sri Lanka’s bilateral debt and Sri Lanka’s representatives after setting up a committee of finance ministers from France, Japan and India.
China, Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, did not join the announcement.
After the COVID pandemic that devastated the tourism industry, import prices soared after the war in Ukraine started, and economic mismanagement, Sri Lanka plunged into its worst financial crisis in 7 years .
Sri Last month, Lanka secured a $2.9 billion package from the IMF to tackle its massive debt load.
