The Adviser to Venezuela's Largest Debt Restructuring: How Centerview Was Chosen Without a Tender, and the Questions It Leaves Open

Venezuela launched the largest debt restructuring in its history and named Centerview Partners as financial adviser without a competitive process. The choice is not a formality: the bank running the process defines the speed, the structure and the recovery value of every creditor. Three top-tier advisers were left out without bidding, a rival offered to do the work for a fraction of the price, and the only Venezuelan who has already restructured the country's debt —in 1990— calls the fee a plunder. The file opens legitimate governance questions; all will be settled by verifiable facts, not statements.

Venezuela formally began restructuring a public debt that private estimates place between 150 and 200 billion dollars —equivalent to 180% to 200% of GDP— and that has been in default since 2017. In an operation of this scale, the identity of the financial adviser is not a formality. The bank running the process defines the negotiation strategy, the pace, the structure of the exchange and, ultimately, the recovery value each class of creditor will obtain. That is why the market watches this appointment with the same attention it will later devote to the terms of the exchange. And the appointment has already produced its first controversy, before any negotiation has begun.