VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The U.S. Congress has delayed work on Puerto Rico debt bill. Originally, the bill was scheduled to be the subject of hearing on Wednesday before receiving final amendments on Thursday. After that, it will be sent for debate on the House.

Puerto Rico is struggling with a $72 billion debt and is seeking for a Chapter 9 bankruptcy. It is unclear why the said country is excluded and will not be able to take advantage of it to protect it from creditors and restructure its debts. Only Congress can make a bankruptcy law.

Puerto Rico, the island territory of U.S. is in the crisis due to its surmounting debt. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla repeated the island's debt will lead to moratorium.

Puerto Rico has run into deep economic crisis, with its fiscal agent, the Government Development Bank, running out of reserves to cover even essential services. The government is tilting towards holding on to its debt repayments to sustain the island as a going concern, but their plea to creditors and the Congress to bail them out of the crisis is met with resistance on both fronts.

The measures by Barack Obama-led US government to keep more pressure on lawmakers to bring Puerto Rico out of the economy crisis are facing strong resistance from Republicans. The US Treasury has listed out proposals, for which it sought the support of Congress to enact them to help the US territory Puerto Rico Island in dealing with the ongoing financial crisis.

At a time when creditors of crisis-hit Puerto Rico are gearing up for negotiations on restructuring the Island's debt in smaller alliances, the group of hedge funds was believed to be split off. The hedge funds group comprising over 36 firms is holding a debt of $5.2billion of ailing Puerto Rico. According to unconfirmed news, since Puerto Rico governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said that government's debts were unsustainable, there's surfacing difference of opinion among hedge group members. In the latest development, a group of activists in the Island has started raising voice against the participation of Antonio Weiss in the restructuring plan negotiations as his connections with the Wall Street lead to a conflict of interest.

The debt-ridden Island Puerto Rico has opted for value-added tax (VAT) as a measure to enhance revenues for the government. The new VAT structure will come into force starting1 April 2016.

The five-year restructuring plan proposed for ailing Caribbean island Puerto Rico has become a center of criticism from economists, who question that who shall benefit from this debt deal. Economists argue that the debt plan overstated the financial requirements of the island.

Puerto Rico is jacking up its sales tax in a bid to address its fiscal problems. This is considered a regressive move that could ultimately hurt the country's bottom line and its countless poor people.

Puerto Rico is not intending to cut principal payments to bondholders but to renegotiate debt terms, and officials are set to meet creditors on Monday at the offices of Citi, the head of the island's Government Development Bank Melba Acosta told reporters on Tuesday.

Creditors of Puerto Rico's power authority, PREPA, have offered it $2 billion in financing, including $1.2 billion to fund a new natural gas operation, in exchange for assurances that it would repay its debt, two people close to the matter told Reuters on Saturday.

A long-shot bill to give Puerto Rico's ailing public agencies a chance to restructure their massive debts under the section of U.S. bankruptcy law used by cities such as Detroit and Stockton, California, will get a hearing before a key congressional committee, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Hopes of an orderly resolution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis suffered a heavy blow after a court voided the island's restructuring law, raising fears it may be heading for a longer, messier debt overhaul.

Bebe Stores Inc said it detected a hacking attack on its payment processing system that could have compromised data from cards swiped in its stores in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

Nissan Motor Co is recalling about 238,000 Altima sedans from the 2013 model year because a secondary hood latch may not hold, increasing the risk of a crash, U.S safety regulators and the company said on Friday.