Ukrzaliznytsya sinks into technical default on Barclay's loan

Ekonomichna Pravda reported this morning that Ukrzaliznytsya, Ukraine’s state-owned monopoly railway operator, did not make its scheduled payment on November 11 on a syndicated loan to Barclay’s. The USD 550 mln loan was taken out in summer 2007 at LIBOR+2.5%; Ukrzaliznytsya paid USD 118 mln on the loan in August and was scheduled to make another equal payment yesterday. Ekonomichna Pravda said that Ukrzaliznytsya officials wrote a letter to Barclay’s on November 4 asking to push the payment date back to 2010.