Page 50 - UKRRptMay20

finance minister in just over a month already.
Bohdan Danylyshyn, the head of the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), believes the NBU should purchase local government bonds for UAH160bn on the secondary market​, he wrote in his blog on April 9. In case the NBU doesn't pursue this quantitative easing approach, he recommended the Cabinet of Ministers to initiate talks on restructuring all local bonds due in May-December 2020. The total amount of payments on local bonds that are due in May-December is UAH128bn, of, which UAH20bn will be payments to non-residents, he estimated.​ ​Recall, the NBU ​Council removed on March 31 a restriction​ of the central bank on purchasing local bonds on the secondary market, as well as recommended the NBU board to determine the amount of a possible bond purchase that won’t jeopardize price stability.
8.5.1​ Fixed income - bond news
Metinvest faces bump in debt service payments in April-May.​ ​Metinvest Ukraine’s largest steelmaker, is scheduled to pay a $27.5mn coupon on its METINV’26 notes on April 23 and a $22.6mn coupon on its METINV’29 notes on May 17, according to our analysis.​ ​ Metinvest is also to resume principal repayment of its $406mn PXF facility, about $15mn per month, in April. Recall, Metinvest last prepaid $75mn against these principal repayments in October. In its 3Q19 investor presentation, Metinvest said that in October 2019, it had prepaid PXF principal redemptions until April 2020. At the end of January, Metinvest had $291mn of cash on its balance. Analysts think Metinvest should be able to continue servicing its debt at least for the next few quarters. One source of liquidity for Metinvest should be its working capital. Concorde calculates that at the end of 2019, Metinvest’s trade-related net working capital (NWC) stood at $1.58bn, or 15% of last-12-month (L12M) revenue. For
50​ UKRAINE Country Report​ May 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com