Spain’s pharmaceutical lobby is negotiating a plan to sell state-guaranteed securities backed by €5.4 billion ($7.1 billion) of unpaid bills, according to a Bloomberg report.
The group is looking to bundle outstanding debt into a vehicle that would issue securities guaranteed by the central government.
According to the report, the structure would allow the payment of the debt to be delayed by several years and the government guarantee would make it appealing to capital markets investors.
The pharmaceutical debt is equivalent to about 0.5 percent of Spanish gross domestic product. Spain’s regional governments owe €5.4 billion for medicines supplied to hospitals and are paying bills an average of 430 days late, the Bloomberg report stated.
