Puerto Rico creditors open to mediation in bankruptcy court
Source: Reuters
BUSINESS NEWS | Wed May 17, 2017 | 12:01pm EDT
Puerto Rico creditors open to mediation in bankruptcy court
By Nick Brown | SAN JUAN
Puerto Rico's main creditors, meeting before a U.S. bankruptcy judge in the largest public finance restructuring case in history, are interested in continuing mediation settlement talks to resolve the island's unpayable $70 billion debt bill.
A lawyer for Puerto Rico's federal financial oversight board told U.S. district court judge Laura Taylor Swain in opening arguments that the two main creditor groups both expressed interest in maintaining these talks while the case proceeds.
Swain, the soft-spoken Manhattan jurist tapped by the U.S. Supreme Court to handle the bankruptcy, said the "scope and scale" of the case "humbling" and that it "will certainly involve pain" but that "failure is not an option."
She added, before a packed courtroom with an estimated 100 people and two additional overflow rooms, that "devoting all our time to litigation cannot" be a way forward.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/us-puertorico-debt-hearing-idUSKCN18D0D9