Sri Lanka and bondholders restart dash for restructuring deal
LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) -Sri Lanka and its bondholders have restarted formal talks over restructuring around $12.5 billion of debt, sources familiar with the situation said, in the hope of reaching a provisional deal before next weekend's presidential election.
Sri Lanka's effort to write down its international bonds has been on hold since July when it announced a framework plan with a group of creditors holding over half of its outstanding bonds.
The agreement was contingent on getting sign-off from so-called "official" government creditors and the International Monetary Fund which had not been forthcoming.
According to separate sources, both official creditors and the IMF had raised concerns over some of the scenarios sketched out in the proposal relating to additional "macro bond linked" payments if the economy does well.
The resumption of talks with bondholders, which was first reported by Bloomberg, is aimed at resolving those issues, one of the sources said.
Sri Lanka fell into default for the first time on its foreign debt in May 2022 after its economy was engulfed in a crisis following years of mismanagement.
Restructuring its stack of international bonds was one of the key pre-requisites set out by the IMF as part of its $2.9 billion bailout programme.
The upcoming election will be crucial however, with two of the leading candidates in the race saying they will push ahead with the current reform programme, but a third signalling that they would look to rework it.
Reporting by Karin Strohecker and Marc Jones, Editing by Timothy Heritage
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