The Kyiv City Council paid nearly USD 16 ths to a private consulting firm for an assessment of the financial aspects of a new {municipal} bond issue. Oleksander Klymchuk: Currently the city’s outstanding bond debt includes one domestic issue in local currency (~USD 30 mln) and three Eurobond issues with a total par value of USD 600 mln. We expect the new local issue to have a par value of UAH 200 mln (~USD 40 mln), and have a coupon of nearly 10%. The issue is likely to be underwritten by state-owned Oshchadbank. A few weeks ago, driven by the city’s growing revenues and sound financial performance, Standard & Poor’s raised long-term issuer credit rating on the City of Kyiv to ‘BB-‘ from ‘B+’.