Ukraine

Ukrainian bond yields soared and the price of insuring against a default on government debt surged yesterday as tens of thousands of demonstrators continued to protest in the country’s biggest political crisis in nearly a decade, the Financial Times reported. Extended political uncertainty, with disruption to government work and the threat of strikes, could damage Ukraine’s already fragile economy and public finances, analysts warned, increasing the risks of a currency crisis.

Ukraine's government bonds tumbled to fresh lows Tuesday, narrowing the cash-poor country's options for financing its debt and its spending, and pushing it closer to a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, The Wall Street Journal reported. The ex-Soviet republic has a litany of problems: a wide budget deficit, a wider trade deficit, dwindling reserves of foreign currency and debt coming due that needs to be repaid with it.

Boeing Co has sued its Russian and Ukrainian partners in satellite launch service Sea Launch, saying they refused to pay it more than $350 million following the joint-venture's bankruptcy filing in 2009, Reuters reported. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, targeted RSC Energia, a company partially owned by the Russian government, and two Ukrainian state-owned companies, PO Yuzhnoye Mashinostroitelny Zavod and KB Yuzhnoye.

BTA Bank, the Kazakh lender seeking to overhaul its debt for a second time, said a Ukrainian court recognized the restructuring proceedings and extended protection over its assets, Bloomberg reported. “This recognition is a part of the bank’s current restructuring process and the order follows successful applications for recognition made by the BTA in the U.K. and U.S., which were obtained on July 11 and Aug. 16, respectively,” the Almaty-based lender said in a statement e- mailed today.

VAT Nadra Bank, under temporary administration by Ukraine’s central bank, said it finished restructuring foreign debt as the lender seeks to qualify for government aid, Bloomberg reported. Nadra, based in Kiev, has restructured $877 million of international obligations, including Eurobonds, the bank said today on its website, without providing the terms of its agreement with creditors. Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Tigipko said May 21 that the government was ready to help the bank once the international debt was restructured.

Ukraine's state railway said on Thursday it planned to sign an agreement by May 20 to restructure $440 million remaining from a syndicated loan of $550 million, Reuters reported. The loan was organised by Barclays in July 2007 and matured in 2009, according to Thomson Reuters Loan Pricing Corp data. Its total size is now $440 million after the company made an initial August 2009 payment of $110 million. "We have been holding talks for the past three months and I hope a new credit agreement will be signed by May 20," railway director Mykhailo Kostyuk was quoted as saying.

The new gas deal with Russia offering Ukraine a 30% discount on the price of Russian natural gas supplies will help Naftogaz to avoid bankruptcy, the Ukrainian national energy company said in a statement on Thursday, RIA Novosti reported. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych agreed during their meeting on Wednesday in Kharkov in east Ukraine that Russia would grant Ukraine a 30% discount on the gas price of $330 per 1,000 cu m over the next ten years.

Ukraine's presidential election yesterday—which appears headed to a second round run-off on Feb. 7 between the two leading candidates, Viktor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko—unfolds against the background of financial ruin, The Wall Street Journal reported in an opinion piece. It has long been obvious that the defeat of the incumbent, Viktor Yushchenko, who has painted himself into the anti-Russian nationalist corner, would produce a political rapprochement between Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Yanukovych is committed to non-alignment (meaning no application for NATO membership) while Ms.

The International Monetary Fund has turned down recession-battered Ukraine’s plea for a $2bn emergency loan before the New Year, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, citing his country’s failure to adopt a fiscally prudent 2010 budget and muster political consensus ahead of a hotly contested presidential election, the Financial Times reported.

Ukraine has made an urgent appeal to the International Monetary Fund for about $2 billion in emergency loans to ease “an extremely difficult situation” in meeting its external obligations and avoid the danger of a “spill-over effect” on other economically vulnerable states, the Financial Times reported. “The next three months are crucial,” said Hryhoriy Nemyria, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister. Mr Nemyria’s warning seems aimed at putting public pressure on the IMF, the US and the European Union at a difficult time in financial markets.