Cammesa, the national administrator of Argentina’s wholesale electricity market, is set to complete today the payment of 70% of its April bill with power generators including AES Argentina, Pampa Energia and YPF Luz, three industry sources said.

Additionally, the administrator has promised to cancel 100% of the April payment by the end of this week, said the first and second sources. As such, Cammesa’s payment terms will settle at around 60 days for the month, representing an 18-day delay vis-à-vis the contracted terms, said the third source.

“We will likely see these minor delays in coming months, but nothing more,” said the second source.

“It is not bad considering delays reached 100 days earlier this year,” said the third source. “However, it moves away from the promise of ‘normalization’ of payment terms that the government made in exchange for the settlement with bonds of the December 2023-January 2024 debt,” the source said.

Ageera, the association representing Argentine power generation companies, sent a note to Minister of the Economy Luis Caputo on 13 June requesting the payments to be made within the 42-day contracted terms. At that moment, companies had only collected 35% of the April bill, as reported.

Power generators agreed to the government’s proposed payment terms for the December 2023-January 2024 debt “with great effort,” said the Ageera note. Those terms “included a commitment by the national government to reestablish the contractual payment terms starting with the March 2024 bill,” said the note.

Power generation companies took a 40% haircut on Cammesa’s debt corresponding to the December 2023-January 2024 period, as they were paid with Argentine sovereign bonds due 2038 that traded at a discount in the domestic market, as reported.

A 60-day payment term is acceptable when compared with the terms seen in the last three years, said the second source. Payment terms from January 2021 to today ranged from 54 days to 144 days, according to the source.

A spokesperson at Argentina’s Ministry of the Economy did not reply to requests for comment.