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Stakeholder: talks on Privatbank loans underway

"Former owners of Privatbank, according to their obligations, participate in the negotiation process."

Former co-owner of Privatbank Ihor Kolomoyskyy said on Monday, 3 July, that negotiations on restructuring the bank's loan portfolio continue.

"The former owners of Privatbank, in accordance with their obligations, participate in the negotiation process to restructure their loans with a consortium of companies that received the mandate to represent the interests of the Ministry of Finance and Privatbank, which has been agreed with the International Monetary Fund," TSN's website quoted its owner as saying.

The tycoon noted that this negotiation process began in June is going as usual and will continue until an agreement is reached.

He said that "the informational hype raised by the officials of the National Bank of Ukraine regarding the restructuring of loans of former Privatbank shareholders is connected with the ignorance of NBU representatives about the ongoing negotiation process in which they are not involved."

"It looks like that the statements of the NBU that contradict the findings of the official audit reports and distort the essence of the audit, are spurred by the desire to absolve themselves of the responsibility for unprofessionalism and the actual cost of Privatbank's nationalization to society," Kolomoyskyy said.

Privatbank was transferred into the state ownership last December, after the previous owners brought it to insolvency. The Ministry of Finance and the National Bank estimated the need for Privatbank's recapitalisation at 148bn hryvnia.

In the course of the nationalization talks, the government agreed to restructure the loans issued to Kolomoyskyy and Boholyubov for 10 years with a quarterly interest payment provided the former stakeholders add collateral for these loans by 1 July, 2017. This has not been done.

The term of restructuring can be extended until 2018, if 75% of loans are restructured by 1 July.

Ukraine's Ministry of Finance has said it would decide on further strategy on Privatbank after the reports of the Rothschild consortium, Ernst&Young and FinPoint, which are in talks with with Kolomoyskyy.

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