PREPA talks deadline extended

Puerto Rico bankruptcy Judge Laura Taylor Swain extended the deadline for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority mediation to 11:59 p.m. Sept. 16 from 11:59 p.m. Friday and gave the mediators the option to further extend the deadline to 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30.

This is the fifth deadline extension since Swain put the PREPA restructuring into mediation in late March. The mediation team requested the extension based on what it said was progress in the talks.

Swain is requiring the Puerto Rico Oversight Board to submit by the deadline a proposed plan of adjustment, a term sheet for a plan of adjustment, a litigation schedule, or "a declaration or memorandum of law showing cause as to why the court should not consider dismissal of PREPA's Title III [bankruptcy] case." 

The current round of mediation sessions started in response to Gov. Pedro Pierluisi withdrawing from a PREPA debt restructuring deal in early March. At that time Swain asked the board to submit a proposed plan of adjustment by May 2.

While the Oversight Board placed PREPA in bankruptcy under the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act in July 2017, there have been talks among some of the involved parties about restructuring PREPA's debt since summer 2014.

The extension comes as Puerto Rico's politicians have been discussing what should be done about the increasing problems with blackouts in recent months.