New York, November 19, 2012 -- A recent Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding a decision requiring Argentina to pay bondholders who did not accept previous debt swaps has the potential to create losses for holders of the restructured debt, says Moody's Investors Service. However, the ruling did not settle any of the questions that will ultimately determine the impact on ratings, if any.

The impact of the decision will hinge on the specifics of the final ruling, its enforceability, and the response of Argentina, says Moody's in the report "Legal Ruling Raises Questions About Argentina's Debt Payments."

The Second Circuit has sent the case back to the district court to clarify the formula to be used to pay both the bondholders who did not accept the debt swaps and holders of the restructured debt and whether and how the ruling impacts third parties involved in Argentina's payments process.

From a ratings perspective the key question is whether the ruling will lead to losses for restructured debt bondholders.

Moody's base scenario is that Argentina will seek to continue servicing restructured debt without changes to currency, maturity, or interest rate, and hence posing no losses to investors, but the approach may clash with the government's stated objective of denying payments to holdouts.

On October 26th the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling requiring the government of Argentina (B3 negative) to pay litigating bondholders concurrently with any payments to holders of its restructured debt. The litigating bondholders, or holdouts, are investors that did not participate in Argentina's 2005 or 2010 debt swaps. The holdout creditors own an estimated US$1.3 billion of defaulted claims (about 8% of total claims).

The appeals court wrote that bond documents' pari passu language "prohibits Argentina, as bond issuer, from formally subordinating the bonds by issuing superior debt." The court further ruled that as bond payer Argentina could not pay other bonds without paying litigating bondholders.

For more information, Moody's research subscribers can access this report at URL:

http://www.moodys.com/research/Legal-Ruling-Raises-Questions-About-Argentinas-Debt-Payments--PBC_147437

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Gabriel Torres VP - Senior Credit Officer Sovereign Risk Group Moody'sInvestors Service, Inc.250 Greenwich StreetNew York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653Bart Oosterveld MD - Sovereign Risk Sovereign Risk Group JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653 Releasing Office: Moody's Investors Service, Inc.250 Greenwich StreetNew York, NY 10007 U.S.A. JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376 SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653(C) 2012 Moody's Investors Service, Inc. and/or its licensors and affiliates (collectively, "MOODY'S"). All rights reserved.

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