Argentina's shelf registration declared effective, sees go-ahead for swap offer

By Christine Van Dusen

Atlanta, March 22 - Argentina's shelf registration has been declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a decision the Latin American sovereign needs to move forward with an exchange for $20 billion in debt, according to market sources.

"This was the last piece of the puzzle that they needed to launch a swap reopening for holdouts," said Enrique Alvarez, a debt strategist with think tank IDEAglobal. "They said they're going to do so in the next three weeks."

The Finance Ministry announced late Friday night that the sovereign was approved by the SEC to reopen a 2005 debt restructuring, Alvarez said. This swap offer is expected to enable the sovereign to issue new bonds soon.

"That's been positive for the credit," Alvarez said. "They looked to have ironed out difficulties. We'll get some details on a firm offering. That's caused Argentina to go up 0.3% in performance terms. And they were already trading at relative highs in the last three to four weeks."

Investors "will be in there speculating, or if they already hold positions they'll be riding the building momentum," he said.

The SEC declared Argentina's S-B shelf filing for $15 billion of debt securities, warrants and units effective Friday.

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