Fixed Income
Most Ukrainian sovereign Eurobond issues ended higher last week despite confusion over the status of a USD 3.0bn Ukrainian bond held by Russia and whether it could threaten Ukraine’s bailout deal with the IMF. Kyiv is struggling to reach a restructuring deal with its bondholders by June before the scheduled USD 17.5bn IMF program revision. Thus far, private investors appear to believe that Western governments will step in to guarantee at least some Ukraine’s debt, and this expectation is undermining the negotiating position of Finance Minister Natalia Jaresko. Restructuring proposals as part of a fast-track debt swap aimed at saving the country USD 15.3bn still appear to be far from fruition. The longest outstanding Ukrainian Eurobonds with maturity in 2023 rose by 1.5% to close at 41.0/42.0 (24.7%/24.2%). Medium term Ukraine-20s were unchanged at 41.3/43.3 (30.5%/29.1%), while sovereigns maturing this September, which are certain to be restructured, declined by 1 cent to a mid-price
