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Telecom
December 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
Ukrainian telecom operator Ukrtelecom seeks amicable deal on Oschadbank debt
Ukraine’s leading fixed line telecom operator Ukrtelecom and state-owned lender Oschadbank are working to reach an amicable agreement on the company’s debt, according to news agency Interfax.
The report followed Oschadbank’s August announcement that it secured the arrest of a 93% stake in Ukrtelecom, the state landline telephone monopoly controlled by ESU LLC. The basis for the arrest was a UAH1.8bn debt owed to the bank by the company, which is controlled by SCM Holdings of Ukraine’s biggest businessman, Rinat Akhmetov. Oschadbank said at the time that it will sell this stake at auction in order to recover its debt.
ESU was supposed to redeem its debt (secured by the Ukrtelecom shares) to Oschadbank in 2017, but instead asked for an extension that was
rejected by the bank. Later, ESU tried to force the bank to extend the debt’s maturity with lawsuits, but failed.
Alexander Paraschiy at brokerage Concorde Capital believes that "this is an expected event after SCM reached a settlement on a larger Ukrtelecom-related debt with Raga, which paved the way for Uktelecom's owner to negotiate debt issues with other creditors".
In October, SCM Holdings' subsidiary and Raga Establishment Ltd. "formally and finally settled the dispute" concerning the sale of Ukrtelecom in 2013. The deal means that all the ongoing legal proceedings shall be discontinued, the press release clarified. No other details of the settlement have been disclosed.