Reuters reveals Battered Russia bonds a risk too far, says distressed debt fund Gramercy

Reuters exclusively revealed distressed debt hedge fund Gramercy, which made a killing on Russian bonds after the 1998 crisis and has taken on Argentina and Venezuela over defaulted debt, says a bet on Russia now is too big a risk even with bonds trading at a tenth of face value. Robert Koenigsberger, whose first trade as founder of Gramercy in 1998 was scooping up battered Russian bonds, said Moscow had shown a surprising willingness to service external debts despite sanctions imposed over its actions in Ukraine. But, Koenigsberger told Reuters, Russia’s capacity to pay is running out of road as systems for settling and clearing trades and transferring bond ownership titles break down.