REUTERS
A Ukrainian delegation led by Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko and the ad hoc creditors' committee held detailed discussions while meeting in San Mateo, California, the United States on August 11-12, and their talks on the terms of Ukraine's debt restructuring are still underway, the ministry wrote on its official website.
"The Ukrainian delegation and the ad hoc creditors' committee held detailed discussions <…>. Talks are ongoing," the ministry said.
Last week, the Finance Ministry agreed to meet with the creditors at their request on August 12, in the office of the largest holder of Ukrainian bonds, Franklin Templeton, calling this meeting as the "final opportunity to reach a full agreement" and once again warned that in case of a failure, the country would be forced to implement alternative options for financing its IMF-supported program.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine has been conducting negotiations with the creditors on sovereign debt restructuring since March 2015, discussing extension of maturities and write-off of part of the debt's nominal value. The measures aim at saving $5.2 billion in debt repayment in 2015 and up to $15.3 billion in the next four years.
After several months of negotiations, state-run Ukreximbank and Oschadbank have recently agreed with holders of their 2015-2018 loan participation notes worth $1.5 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, on the re-profiling of the debts. Principal debt repayment was postponed by seven years in exchange to an increase in coupon rates without writing off principal debt.
In 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 sovereign debt repayment in late July, with such right being provided by a law, which came in force on June 17.
Later, Ukrainian officials and the ad hoc creditors' committee issued a joint statement reporting significant progress made in the negotiations and reaching confidentiality arrangements.
On July 24, the Ukrainian Finance Ministry effected $120 million interest payment that came due on that day.
On August 4, the Finance Ministry sent a revised proposal on the sovereign and sovereign guaranteed debt to the ad hoc creditors' committee, calling them to participate in a high-level meeting in London on August 6. However, the creditors who had previously agreed to write off 5% of the face value of Ukraine's sovereign debt asked to put off the meeting until August 10-11.