PREPA bankruptcy schedule suspended

U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain suspended the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority bankruptcy schedule.

This means the plan of adjustment hearing scheduled for July 17-28, the final hearing of the federal bankruptcy process that is part of Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act, will be postponed.

Acting in response to a request from nearly all the bankruptcy parties, Swain on Wednesday suspended all deadlines.

At some point soon, Swain and the parties will decide on a new schedule.

One of the factors behind the latest holdup is the Puerto Rico Oversight Board’s delay in releasing 2023 fiscal plan for PREPA. Bondholders have been complaining about the board changing the “goalposts” for the plan of adjustment.

The board has said the fiscal plan’s revised electric use projections will require amendments to its proposed plan of adjustment.

The board put PREPA into bankruptcy in July 2017. Negotiations about restructuring PREPA’s debt have gone on since summer of 2014.

The postponement comes as the board and bondholder groups are arguing about the admissibility of bondholder expert testimony and reports in the plan of adjustment hearing.