ENERGY/PUERTO RICO: “A federal judge approved an emergency $300 million loan that will keep Puerto Rico’s troubled electric utility in operation, averting a threat of more power outages at a time when the island is trying to recover from last summer’s devastating hurricanes.
Judge Laura Taylor Swain of U.S. District Court in New York on Monday [2-19-18] signed off on the loan from the island’s central government. Her decision comes days after she rejected the funding for the utility, known as Prepa, saying the cash-strapped power utility hadn’t looked hard enough for alternative funding before seeking court approval of a loan
Prepa, which had sought approval to tap $550 million of a proposed $1 billion financing package, is in desperate need of funding to maintain restoration work on the island’s power grid and to prevent additional blackouts.
Prepa’s chief financial adviser had told the court last week that the government-run utility must have additional financing in place by later this week or parts of the Island would begin to go dark within a matter of days.
A group of Prepa bondholders opposed the government-backed loan and had offered their own $534 million financing package which it claimed wouldn’t disadvantage other lenders.”
-Tom Corrigan and Andrew Scurria, “Federal Judge Approves $300 Million Loan for Puerto Rico Utility,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 19, 2018 07:16pm