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Harry's Here! -- Everyone Wants a Piece of NML's Pari Passu Pie [Updated]

posted by Anna Gelpern

Just two sunny weekend days after NML et al. filed their rejection of Argentina's offer, a new batch of defaulted bond holders have come to ask the court for their piece of Argentina's pari passu distribution. The Duane Morris Individual Plaintiffs apparently believe that

[T]he only sensible resolution is a lump-sum payment of all interest and principal that has accrued and become due and payable in eleven years to all the current holders of the holdout bonds ... . Such a payment would be directed through an order for specific performance, which this Court has endorsed as the appropriate remedial device. NML Capital Ltd., 699 F.3d at 261-262.4B. [Emphasis in the original.]

NML et al. disagree and urge the court to reject the proposed amicus brief:

[T]his Court’s March 1 Order directed Argentina to state what it is prepared to pay Appellees specifically, not what it is willing to pay adversaries in other cases.

No, they are not talking about adversaries suing Argentina for unpaid paperclips -- but other bondholders under the very same 1994 Fiscal Agency Agreement that laid the golden ratable payment egg for the plaintiffs-appellees. 

Argentina, Fintech, and two groups of restructured bond holders don't want the court to friend Duane Morris either, but there is more than a whiff of we-told-you-so in their filings:

[T]he Motion demonstrates that the present appeal does not concern “only” the $1.47 billion demanded by NML and the other plaintiffs-appellees ..., but potentially the entire amount of outstanding defaulted Republic debt subject to a pari passu clause. ... [A]cceptance of the district court’s “ratable payment” formula could open the floodgates for over $15 billion in similar pari passu claims.

In retrospect, one wonders why it took Harry as long as it did to join Tom and Dick at the pari passu party. And when will Sally, Sue and Fred wake up?

UPDATE: Things happen quickly in the pari passu world. Apparently convinced that no one wanted Duane Morris at the party, the Second Circuit denied their motion to file an amicus brief earlier today. Hat-tip to Joseph Cotterill at FTAlphaville, who posts the order here.

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