New Filing - Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico & Puerto Rico Sales Tax Financing Corporation ("COFINA")

  • 5/3/17 Recap: The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico filed a petition for relief under Title III of the the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act ("PROMESA"). Much has been written on this situation and so we're going to keep this brief. We're also going to shed the snark. Why? Well, because this is truly a sad story. GNP in Puerto Rico has declined over 14% in the last decade. The unemployment rate is 12.1% as of 10/16. The labor participation rate plummeted to 40%. The population has declined by 10% over the last decade. 46.1% of PR's residents live below the federal poverty level: the national average is 14.7% and Detroit's poverty level at the time of filing for Chapter 9 was 36%. Brutal. All in, the Commonwealth has $74 billion of bond debt and $48 billion of unfunded pension liabilities. A total dumpster fire.
  • Jurisdiction: United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico
  • Capital Structure:

 

  • Professionals:
    • Counsel to the Oversight Board: Proskauer Rose LLP (Martin Bienenstock, Scott Rutsky, Philip Abelson, Ehud Barak, Maja Zerjal, Timothy Mungovan, Steven Ratner, Paul Possinger) & O'Neill & Borges LLC (Hermann Bauer)
    • Strategic Consultant to the Oversight Board: McKinsey & Co.
    • Municipal Investment Banker to the Oversight Board: Citigroup Global Markets
    • Financial Advisor to the Oversight Board: Ernst & Young LLP
    • Counsel to the Puerto Rico Tax Agency and Financial Advisory Authority: O'Melveny & Myers LLP (John Rapisardi, Suzzanne Uhland, Peter Friedman)
    • Claims Agent: Prime Clerk LLC (*click on company name above for free docket access)
  • Other Parties in Interest:
    • Ad Hoc Retiree Committee
      • Legal: Bennazar Garcia & Milian CSP (A.J. Bennazar-Zequeira) & Clark Hill PLC (Robert Gordon, Shannon Deeby, Jennifer Green)
    • National Public Finance Guarantee Corporation
      • Legal: Weil (Marcia Goldstein, Kelly DiBlasi, Gabriel Morgan)
    • Ambac Assurance Corporation
      • Legal: Milbank Tweed & McCloy LLP (Dennis Dunne, Andrew Leblanc, Atara Miller)
    • UBS Family of Funds
      • Legal: White & Case LLP (John Cunningham)
    • Oppenheimer Funds
      • Legal: Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP (Thomas Mayer, Amy Caton, Douglas Buckley, David Blabey Jr., Phillip Bentley)
    • American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
      • Legal: Saul Ewing LLP (Dipesh Patel, Sharon Levine)
    • The Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
      • Legal: DLA Piper LLP (Richard Chesley, Rachel Albanese)
    • Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP
      • Legal: McDermott Will & Emery LLP (James Kapp, Megan Thibert-Ind, William Smith)
    • Trustee: Bank of New York Mellon 
      • Legal: Reed Smith LLP (Luke Sizemore, Eric Schaffer, Kurt Gwynne)

Updated 5/11/17

From the Commonwealth's petition.

From the Commonwealth's petition.