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On August 4, Ukrainian Finance Ministry sent a revised proposal on the sovereign and sovereign guaranteed debt to the ad hoc creditors’ committee, and given the legal considerations around timely implementation of the proposal, this week was called decisive for the negotiations, according to the posting on the Ministry’s website.
The Ministry calls for the creditors to participate in a high-level meeting in London on Thursday, according to the report.
The Finance Ministry also welcomed the successful reprofiling of Oschadbank's 2016 and 2018 $1.2 billion eurobonds, fully in compliance with the targets of the IMF-supported program and called for the remaining international creditors of Oschadbank to settle rapidly on similar terms.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine started debt restructuring talks in March, as part of Ukraine’s cooperation within the framework of its loan program with the IMF. The measures aim at saving $5.2 billion of debt payments in 2015 and up to $15.3 billion in the next four years.
After months of relative stalemate in the negotiations, only state-owned Oschadbank and Ukreximbank indicated some progress in debt restructuring, having agreed with their creditors to extend maturities for seven years on debt amounting to $1.5 billion and $1.3 billion respectively, in exchange for the coupon increase without writing off the principal debt.
In late June, Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko stated that if there were no progress in talks with the creditors, Ukraine would "theoretically" be in a position to declare a moratorium on public debt payments in late July, with such right being provided by a law, which had come in force on June 17.
Later, Ukrainian officials and the ad hoc creditors' committee issued a joint statement reporting a significant progress made in the negotiations and reaching confidentiality arrangements.
On July 24, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry carried out a $120 million interest payment that came due on that day.
Last week, Bloomberg reported with reference to its own sources that the country's creditors had accepted a 5-percent so called haircut on their principal holdings, and Ukraine suggested to hold direct negotiations in the first week of August.