By Rae Wee
BANGKOK, Oct 16 (Reuters) – US financial services firm Centerview Partners remains the financial adviser for Venezuela’s debt restructuring, the country’s top economic adviser said on Friday.
• “We are very happy with them,” Calixto Ortega told Reuters on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Bangkok, adding that he had held discussions with the firm this week
• Venezuela in May announced that it had hired Centerview as its financial adviser after launching a restructuring of its sovereign debt and that of state oil firm PDVSA. In June, it was reported that US investment bank Lazard was bidding to try to replace Centerview
• Ortega told Reuters that Centerview remained very much involved in the debt restructuring process
• Earlier this week, Ortega said Venezuela was hoping to publish a debt sustainability analysis “very soon”, but the process has been more challenging than expected
• The restructuring of the country’s estimated $150-200 billion debt pile could be the largest in history, and has been complicated by a unique web of creditors
(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by John Mair)
