A small group of hedge funds are being rewarded for backing an $18bn restructuring of Puerto Rico’s sales-tax debt that saddled other investors with losses.

Tilden Park Capital Management and GoldenTree Asset Management are among the credit market specialists that have reaped hundreds of millions of dollars in paper profits on those revenue bonds and are poised to collect more under settlement terms that provide them with stronger claims to repayment than before, according a Wall Street Journal analysis of court records and trading information.