Financial Times- Venezuelan bond prices soar after US lifts trading ban

Easing of sanctions hands windfall to hedge funds that bought Caracas’s debt at knockdown prices

Venezuelan government bond prices soared on Thursday after the US government eased sanctions that had barred American investors from trading them, handing immediate large gains to some hedge funds.

The price of Venezuela’s sovereign dollar bond maturing in 2027 jumped more than 70 per cent to 19 cents on the dollar, according to Bloomberg data…

… Among the hedge funds to benefit from Thursday’s rally was Lee Robinson’s Altana Wealth, which launched a fund to buy Venezuelan debt three years ago. The company has roughly $75mn invested in sovereign and PDVSA bonds with a combined face value of almost $500mn as of the end of September,

Robinson told the Financial Times. “There has been a major push from both sides [to improve relations] for over two years,” he said. “The Middle East and the Russian attack on Ukraine have perhaps increased the urgency from [the] US and allies.”

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