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| The head of Ukraine state gas company Naftogaz, Oleg Dubina, and Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko: hopeful of successful debt exchange |
Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state-owned gas company, appears to have succeeded in a last-ditch attempt to appease bondholders through a restructuring offer for a $500 million Eurobond that matured at the end of last month. The deal forms part of the company’s plans to roll over $1.6 billion of debt owed to foreign creditors, including $1.1 billion in bilateral loans. The restructuring offer, which was announced on September 24, came six days before the bonds were due to mature. As the early participation deadline for the transaction is October 8 and the final voting deadline is October 15, Naftogaz, Ukraine’s most important company, technically defaulted on the repayment of principal irrespective of the offer’s eventual outcome. The company, however, honoured a $20 million coupon payment that was due on September 30, the same day as the full repayment of the bond, signalling that an agreement with creditors over its restructuring offer was likely. An action group that had previously wanted to block any restructuring indicated that it would now support the company following the coupon payment.