Ukraine's largest private power producer, DTEK, which recently suspended its debt payments, is ready to submit proposals on debt restructuring to creditors, the company's CEO said on Tuesday.
DTEK, owned by the country's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, missed payments of coupons on eurobonds and interest on bank debt as it struggled to minimize effects of the economic crisis, Reuters said.
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"A committee of creditors has been established; we have prepared proposals for restructuring and they will be sent to the committee of creditors in the near future," DTEK's chief executive, Maxim Timchenko, said in an online briefing.
He declined to disclose how much debt the company wants to restructure or for how long.
"We need to ask our investors to restructure our loan portfolio," Timchenko said. "Since April, the company has not been able to continue payments on the loan portfolio according to the schedule being agreed with investors."
In December 2016, during the restructuring of previously placed debts, DTEK issued eight-year bonds worth US$1.3 billion with a quarterly coupon payment. One such payment was due on April 1.
Last November DTEK also placed a five-year "green" eurobond worth EUR 325 million.
"I rely very much on the trust and memory of our investors ... In any situation we work very professionally, honestly with our investors and they always become our allies," Timchenko said.
Due to financial problems in the energy sector, DTEK has not received full payments for its production and had to temporarily suspend from April 1 operations of some coal units, where about 8,000 employees work, he said. He added that the biggest Ukraine mining company – Pavlohrad coal mining group, with 22,000 jobs – would adopt a temporary stoppage from April 20.
