LONDON (Reuters) – Argentina has been given permission to appeal after losing a London lawsuit brought by four hedge funds over euro-denominated securities which left the country facing a roughly $1.5 billion bill, Argentina’s lawyers said on Wednesday.
The funds, holding around 48% of the securities linked to Argentina’s gross domestic product in 2013, won at trial and a judge ruled Argentina should pay 1.33 billion euros ($1.44 billion) plus interest in relation to all the GDP-linked securities.
But Argentina was given permission to challenge that ruling earlier this month, the country’s lawyers said in court filings at a preliminary hearing at the Court of Appeal in London.
Argentina, however, was granted permission to appeal on the condition that it pay around 310 million euros to be held in escrow pending the determination of its appeal.
The country asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider that condition, with its lawyer Tamara Oppenheimer arguing it would cause “harm to the people of Argentina”.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)