Fixed Income
Ukrainian sovereign Eurobond issues were unchanged last week as investors took a pause to wait for some concrete results from debt restructuring talks between the Finance Ministry and the country’s creditors. Meanwhile, a creditor committee that holds about USD 10bn of Ukrainian debt is working on a plan that “provides Ukraine with the necessary financial liquidity support,” the group said in a statement released by the Blackstone Group, its hired advisor. Although creditors are playing hardball to avoid a reduction in their principal holdings, we do not believe that Ukraine can reach its required IMF fiscal targets without a haircut. In our view, simply extending Ukraine’s bond maturities will not be sufficient to make the country’s debt sustainable, and this argument is supported by Greece’s restructuring experience. The longest outstanding Ukrainian Eurobonds with maturity in 2023 remained at 41.0/42.0 (24.8%/24.2%). Sovereigns maturing this September, which are certain to be restru
