Ukraine’s cash-strapped Metinvest seeks breather from debt repayments

(Reuters) — Left with barely any cash as a result of Ukraine’s economic and political turmoil, the country’s largest steel company, Metinvest, has asked creditors for a timeout on repayments.
Ukrainian companies are struggling to repay foreign debt due to a collapse in the national currency and slumping revenue caused by recession and conflict in the east of the country.
Metinvest has practically no cash to service the bulk of its debt payments to bondholders and banks this year, finance chief Aleksey Kutepov told Reuters on Wednesday.
Falling output, collapsed domestic demand and weaker prices on the global market have forced Metinvest — owned by one of the richest men in Ukraine, Rinat Akhmetov — to ask Eurobond holders and banks for a repayment holiday in order to negotiate new loan agreements.
«The idea is to give the company and all our creditors time until the end of January 2016 to agree within two next quarters a new schedule of our overall debt repayments,» Kutepov said.
Metinvest’s net profit slumped nearly 60 percent in 2014 to $159 million, the company said.
«The reality now is that after repaying its debts in 2014 the company has only enough funds to secure stable operations during 2015,» Kutepov said.
He said Metinvest had asked bondholders to agree to extend its 2015 bond from May 20 to January 2016 and was also seeking extensions for its Eurobonds maturing in 2017 and 2018.
It has already agreed a part exchange of its $500 million May 2015 Eurobond for 2017 notes with a 10.50 percent coupon, but around $113 million was due to mature this year.
The company has offered to repay 10 percent, or around $11 million, of the 2015 bond and move the remaining sum to January, Kutepov said.
«These negotiations will be quite difficult and I would not risk assessing the chances for a success,» he added.
The company’s total outstanding debt as of Feb. 28 stood at $3.1 billion. Its 2017 and 2018 bonds are both trading at around 40-45 cents on the dollar.
Metinvest’s revenues fell 18 percent to $10.6 billion in 2014 due to lower output of steel products, it said.
Its core earnings, however, rose 14 percent to $2.7 billion thanks to a weaker hryvnia currency which helped the company to reduce costs.
Business has not improved this year as rail networks in the separatist east have been disrupted by clashes between government troops and pro-Russian rebels, Kutepov said.
Запись Ukraine’s cash-strapped Metinvest seeks breather from debt repayments впервые появилась Новостной интернет-портал.

Читать полностью здесь: IPnews

---

---