BUENOS AIRES, July 26 (Reuters) - France has asked the U.S.
Supreme Court to review Argentina's case in its decade-old legal
battle with holdout creditors, Argentina's state news agency
Telam said on Friday, citing unnamed legal sources familiar with
the situation.
No comment was immediately available from the Argentine
government. The South American country is in a legal fight
against holders of defaulted bonds who chose not to go along
with restructurings in 2005 and 2010, in which 93 percent of
holders accepted returns as low as 25 cents on the dollar.
The holdout creditors are demanding 100 cents on the dollar
in a case that may end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, if the
court accepts Argentina's petition to hear it.
"The French government has filed an amicus brief in support
of Argentina's petition before the Supreme Court," state news
agency Telam said.
The Supreme Court is on its summer break and won't decide
whether to hear the Argentina case until the fall.
Some governments and the International Monetary Fund have
voiced worry that a ruling against Argentina would make it more
difficult for other countries to restructure their debt.
Argentina is asking the Supreme Court to void an October
2012 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New
York, which found it had violated a clause in its bond documents
requiring it to treat all creditors equally.
The appeals court has not yet ruled on whether to require
Argentina to pay the holdouts. A ruling in their favor would put
Argentina on the hook for more than $1.3 billion in payments and
risk of another default.
Argentina says it will not give the holdouts - characterized
as "vultures" by the President Cristina Fernandez for picking
over the bones of the country's 2002 sovereign default - better
terms than those offered in the two restructurings.
An adverse court decision would raise the threat of another
default because it might complicate payment of restructured
bonds if the government continues to refuse to pay the holdouts.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde had planned to
recommend that the IMF's board approve a friend-of-court brief
in support of the case by the end of this week. Argentine bond
prices dropped on Wednesday when the Fund announced it would not
make the filing.
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