Puerto Rico on Monday announced it had made an exchange offer to financial creditors to reduce a $49.2 billion chunk of its debt by about 46 percent, to $26.5 billion.
The plan, the opening salvo in the U.S. Commonwealth’s efforts to resolve its $70 billion debt load, would offer creditors reductions in payouts under a debt exchange, but give them an opportunity to make up the difference through a separate bond issue whose payout would be dependent on the island’s future growth.