Ukraine raises USD 205 mln from local bond placement
22 July 2015
Ukraine’s Finance Ministry reported it raised on July 21 USD 205.2 mln with the local placement of one-year notes denominated in U.S. dollars. The average YTM at the placement was 8.79%.
The last time the government issued foreign currency-denominated bonds was on June 23, when the Finance Ministry raised USD 140 mln. Before that, MinFin raised USD 298 mln from a series of local Eurobond placements in February 2015.
Alexander Paraschiy: The placement of local Eurobonds was nothing more than a rollover of local securities due for payment. In July, the Ukrainian government is due to repay USD 306.6 mln in local bonds, but the Finance Ministry usually arranges payment only if most of these same creditors purchase new bonds. It was virtually the same story in June and February, when Ukraine repaid USD 174 mln and USD 318 mln, respectively, in exchange for the purchase of new local Eurobonds.
The July payment is the last large local repayment of local Eurobonds this year. The next USD-based internal repayment will be in December (USD 130 mln), which means that we will hardly see any new local Eurobond placements in the upcoming months.
