Infrastructure Minister Andrii Pyvovarskyi expects the negotiations on restructuring the domestic debts of the State Railway Administration (Ukrzaliznytsia) to be completed this summer, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
"Negotiations are underway. I am talking exclusively about the local debts to local banks. I hope that we will complete the negotiations in the summer, restructure the debt, rebalance the balance sheet, and make payments on the loan principal," Pyvovarskyi said at a press conference in Kiev on Wednesday.
In addition, according to Pyvovarskyi, negotiations are also being held on restructuring the domestic debts of the State Automobile Road Service (Ukravtodor), which the minister expects to be completed within three or four months.
As reported, Ukrzaliznytsia declared a technical default on its debts on 12 May. " Today, we notified our creditors of a technical default on certain debt obligations and notified internal and external creditors of the areas and volumes of restructuring that Ukrzaliznytsia plans to implement in 2015," Blank said at the time.
Blank was talking about almost all of Ukrzaliznytsia’s domestic commercial debt (which amounts to UAH 22 billion) and its external debt on Eurobonds (UAH 10 billion). Its total debt amounts to UAH 37 billion, of which UAH 32 billion will be restructured. According to Blank, Ukrzaliznytsia’s debt of UAH 5 billion to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Ukrainian Export-Import Bank (Ukreximbank) is not subject to restructuring.
Debt-restructuring negotiations will take place in the next two months. According to Blank, 35% of Ukrzaliznytsia’s external debt is held by Russian banks.
