Ukraine

Creditors of Mriya Agro Holding Plc said they presented the Ukrainian agricultural group with their own plan to restructure about $1 billion debt, Bloomberg News reported. Bondholders and lenders want the company to hire a chief restructuring officer and have submitted a “detailed proposal” to help rescue the company and avoid insolvency, according to an e-mailed statement from Rothschild, their financial adviser. Tension between management and creditors has been growing since Mriya said in August it missed payments on some of its obligations.

European leaders are balking at providing additional financial aid for Ukraine despite an urgent need to fill a $15bn funding gap as criticism of Kiev’s reform efforts mounts, the Financial Times reported. The International Monetary Fund has identified the hole in Ukraine’s public finances, prompting Kiev to seek assistance from European and other governments to avoid a possible default.

Lawmakers gave initial approval Thursday to a government program containing the outline for an economic overhaul aimed at stabilizing the country’s finances, as Western backers prepare a new aid package, The Wall Street Journal reported. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had raised the risk of possible default in calling on parliament to support the measures, although his finance minister played down the likelihood of that scenario.

International bondholders advised by Rothschild are recommending a change in control at Ukrainian agricultural company Mriya Agro Holding Plc as the grower of crops from wheat to potatoes seeks to restructure about $1 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. Tensions have increased since Mriya said in August it missed payments on some of its obligations. Rothschild, which is representing a group of creditors including Ashmore Investment Management Ltd, T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

Ukraine will need additional bailout financing from outside the International Monetary Fund to keep the war-torn economy afloat, the head of the IMF said Thursday. The cost of the conflict with Russia-backed separatists has changed the country’s cash needs since the IMF originally designed a $30 billion international bailout program in April, of which the fund pledged to cover $17 billion.

Ukraine's KVV Group has offered to buy Latvia's insolvent steelmaker Liepajas Metalurgs for 107 million euros ($138 million), the insolvency administrator said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Liepajas Metalurgs, the only producer of rolled steel in the Baltic countries, filed for bankruptcy last year, blaming weak demand in Europe. The KVV Group has provided a clear plan for re-launching the plant's operations, the insolvency administrator Haralds Velmers said in a statement. KVV Group is going to pay the sum over 10 years.

Ukraine is facing a $3.5 billion funding gap and could need additional financing worth $19 billion next year if fighting continues through 2015, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday in its latest review of the emergency bailout, The Wall Street Journal reported. The continuing conflict between Kiev's forces and pro-Russian separatists in the eastern region of Ukraine, where the country's manufacturing is centered, is forcing the economy deeper into recession and raising rescue costs.

Ukraine has asked Switzerland for help in recovering assets moved to the Alpine country by members of ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych's inner circle, according to a Swiss official, The Wall Street Journal reported. Since the start of the summer, Switzerland's justice department has received three requests for assistance in repatriating the assets, spokesman Folco Galli said. The requests concern funds linked to the 19 members of Mr. Yanukovych's entourage, rather than to the former Ukrainian leader himself, Mr. Galli said.

Ukraine's government held informal talks with private bondholders about the possibility of extending the maturities of its debt to help buy the country breathing room to repair its economy, a top banking industry group said Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. Lubomir Mitov, a senior economist with the Institute of International Finance, said the discussions were an exploration to determine what type of bond restructuring might be possible if Ukraine's economic crisis worsened. "No decision has been taken, there are no numbers or framework," he said.

The World Bank on Thursday approved $1.5 billion in funding for three Ukraine development projects as part of a larger international financing package, The Wall Street Journal reported. "We are stepping up our assistance to Ukraine because we want to help improve the lives of people in the country and to achieve economic recovery at a crucial time," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement. In March, the bank said it planned to provide more than $3 billion in financing by the end of the year, including up to a $1 billion in budget support.