What are the roles that the Government has in portfolio? On the one hand, there are US$5.3 million at market value in Globales 1% 2029, which imply a nominal value of US$14.5 million. Also owns US$594.9 million in Globales Step Up 2030which at face value represent US$1,516.8 million.
On the other hand, there are holdings of Globales 2035 for US$22.3 million, which in nominal terms represent US$65.3 million, and Globales 2038 for US$7.9 million at market value, which explain a nominal debt for u $20 million.
Global bond holdings by the national Treasury would be the product of debt repurchase operations, market operators indicated. At the beginning of the year, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, had announced an operation for US$1,000 million, with the idea, according to what was said at the time, of improving the maturity profile of the public debt. According to the timely information, an attempt was made to take advantage of the good prices in the secondary markets.
Although the operation was announced mainly for short-term debt, the official resolution also enabled the acquisition of securities with maturities of 2041 and 2046, and Argentine legal papers in foreign currency with maturities of 2029, 2030, 2035, 2038 and 2041. The financial agent was the Central Bank.
Pedro Siaba Serrate, of Portfolio Personal Inversiones (PPI), pointed out to Ambit that Treasury holdings correspond to that announcement from earlier this year, but that it was “discontinued.” The US$1 billion was never reached.
With this announcement the Ministry of Economy managed to sustain bond prices for a while Argentines and thereby lower the country risk for a moment. However, given the scarcity of international reserves, the values announced would not have been reached, but a signal was sent at the time that the Government was going to try to prevent the collapse of prices. It happens that since October 2022 a wind has been blowing in favor of emerging country bonds, from which Argentina had also benefited. The papers had risen to values between 35% and 37% of their nominal value, from previous levels of 20%.
When Massa made the announcement in January, he said he was going to start the deal with a $300 million order. Official data indicates that as of the 31st of that month there were US$374 million at market values.
In February the holding increased to US$525 million, as of March 31, it dropped to US$478 million, at the end of April it dropped to US$417 million; in May, US$450 million; June, US$566 million; and in July, it rose to $605 million. But if nominal values are taken into account, they are always the same US$1,616 million, which implies that the rises and falls were due to market fluctuations.
Source: Ambito
