By Rodrigo Campos
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Credit Suisse repurchased Ecuadorean sovereign notes worth $1.6 billion in face value, the country’s bankers said on Thursday, freeing cash for conservation of the unique Galapagos Islands in the biggest debt-for-nature swap ever struck.
Over $202 million in face value of the 2030 notes was purchased at 53.25 cents on the dollar, as well as just over $1 billion in 2035 notes at 38.5 cents and over $420 million of 2040 notes at 35.5 cents, Credit Suisse said.
The buyback will free cash that Ecuador will put into conservation of its Galapagos Islands, one of the world’s most precious ecosystems and the inspiration for Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
The offer, laid out by Credit Suisse late last month, amounts to the biggest debt-for-nature swap, as such transactions are known in banking circles, struck to date.
The move has a political crisis as backdrop, as the National Assembly is in the middle of an impeachment process against President Guillermo Lasso for alleged embezzlement, allegation Lasso denies.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; additional reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Sandra Maler)
