Investors and advisors buoyed by the rally in Puerto Rican general obligation debt shouldn't break out the champagne just yet.
Even though the government of Puerto Rico made all scheduled principal and interest payments due on its GO debt due Jan. 1, sparking a rally in those bonds, it missed $37 million worth of payments on infrastructure and public finance bonds that same day and $58 million in payments on agency debt. It is still operating on shaky grounds.
For one thing, the government is diverting funds that would have serviced other types of debt to make payments on its GO debt, a process known as a "clawback." Also Puerto Rico's economy is shrinking, with an unemployment rate of 12.5% — two-and-half times the national level—and a declining population, falling about 1% a year for the past nine years. And, most important its "revenue base is eroding," says Richard Ciccarone, president and CEO of Merritt Research Services, a municipal credit and research company. At t the same time, Puerto Rico's bills are piling up – bills to pay pensions and benefits in addition to interest on municipal bonds.
"This is an ongoing problem," says Ciccarone. "We still don't know how this will end up…. Something has to give. The territory is struggling each day to meet its obligations."
The situation is still "very speculative," says John Mousseau, director of fixed income at Cumberland Advisors. "They've got a lot of work ahead."
As it stands now, Puerto Rico has about $70 billion in outstanding municipal debt, including a little less than $13 billion in general obligation debt, which leaves a lot of debt that is not GO debt. Some of that outstanding debt is insured by companies that guarantee interest payments will be made to investors on time, but even those bonds can be "affected by headline risks," says Mousseau.
"Why would you accept the same yield on a Puerto Rican insured bond as on Florida insured bond? Headline risk demands incremental yield." That additional yield amounts to about 1-1.25% more than the yield on other insured bonds, says Mousseau.
