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Huntington Ingalls' shipbuilding unit earlier this year received
a $138 million judgment from a Mississippi court against
Venezuela's defense ministry over non-payment for repairs to two
of the South American country's warships which began decades
ago.
The repairs began before Washington-Caracas relations grew
hostile, under late socialist President Hugo Chavez.
Oil-rich Venezuela has suffered a six-year economic collapse
under Nicolas Maduro, Chavez' successor and mentee, and the
government owes billions to creditors abroad.
On Friday, Huntington Ingalls registered its Mississippi
judgment in Delaware federal court and requested the case be
assigned to a judge overseeing an effort by Canadian gold miner
Crystallex to collect on debts owed by Venezuela by seizing a
stake in the parent company of U.S. refiner Citgo Petroleum
Corp, a unit of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA.
"We anticipate that Ingalls will next file a Petition for a Writ
of Attachment on Citgo parent PDV Holding and get in line," Russ
Dallen, managing partner of boutique investment bank Caracas
Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients.
Neither Huntington Ingalls nor Venezuela's information ministry
immediately responded to requests for comment.
To be sure, all companies are currently barred from seizing
shares in PDV Holding, Citgo's parent, due to U.S. sanctions
aimed at ousting Maduro from power.
That protection - part of an effort by the Trump administration
to keep Citgo under the control of the Venezuelan opposition -
expires in October, but it has previously been extended multiple
times.
PDVSA has also used shares in Citgo's parent as collateral for
its bonds maturing in 2020 and for a 2017 loan from Russian
state oil company Rosneft.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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