Privatbank gets new supervisory board, continues ignoring bondholders

Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk announced on Dec. 23 the new supervisory board of the nationalized Privatbank (PRBANK). Of the seven members, five represent the EBRD, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Finance Ministry, whle another two are independent members. Danylyuk also stated that the government has no clear timeline of the bank’s possible privatization. “It could be six years, nine years, or more,” he said.

Meanwhile, the ex-management of Privatbank commented on the statement of NBU Head Valeria Gontareva that about UAH 2.6 bln of funds of related parties were withdrawn from the bank during its nationalization. “Their mythological billions that were embezzled don’t exist,” Oleg Gorokhovskiy, ex-deputy CEO of Privatbank told the 1+1 television network, as cited by Interfax-Ukraine. The bank’s ex-management continued to blame the NBU’s top management in the bank’s nationalization.

Meanwhile, as of this morning, none of the involved parties informed PRBANK noteholders on what has happened to the bank’s notes.

Alexander Paraschiy: The fact that nobody contacted the bondholders – in the seven days after Privatbank’s nationalization – indicate that there is nobody in Ukraine who is ready to take responsibility for the full dilution of the bondholders. As it appears right now, the non-related bondholders are the bank’s only creditors that are going to recover nothing from their exposure to the bank. All the other creditors will retain 100% of their investments, or even more. We still hope the government will address the bondholders soon.