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February 16, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 31
bne:Credit IMF disburses €75mn
to Bosnia
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) disbursed the long- delayed second tranche of BAM145.8mn (€74.55mn) to Bosnia & Herzegovina under the three-year loan deal that was unfrozen earlier in February after being put on hold for a year as Sarajevo failed to make the required reforms.
Although Bosnia’s two entities – the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska – desperately need the cheap funds from the IMF, political disagreements froze key reforms for a year after the international institution put the three-year stand-by agreement
on hold in January 2017. So far, Bosnia has only received the first tranche of the 36-month deal, which was signed in September 2016 and is supported by a SDR443.04mn (about €550mn) Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
However, at the end of 2017, Bosnian politicians finally managed to put their disagreements aside and meet the IMF’s requirements. This is also expected to unfreeze much-needed international financial support from other sources.
One-third of the money was distributed to Bosnia’s smaller entity, Republika Srpska, while the reminder was allocated to the Muslim- Croat Federation, Bosnia’s central bank said in a statement.
Stricken Croatian food and retail giant Agrokor plans to ask for three extra months to reach a settlement with creditors, the group’s extraordinary manager Ante Ramljak told a parliamentary committee on February 15.
The group, which came close to collapse in early 2017 after a run on its bonds, is trying to restructure around €5.5bn worth of debt. In November, Agrokor accepted creditor claims worth HRK41.2bn (€5.4bn) but disputed other claims worth a total of HRK16.5bn.
An emergency law adopted last year sets April 10 as the deadline
to reach a final settlement with creditors, but there is the possibility to secure a three-month extension.
Discussion with creditors on the settlement are “moving forward”, Ramljak told the committee. However, he added that Agrokor’s management wanted to have a permanent council of creditors
in place to vote on the settlement proposal, which for procedural reasons is not possible before the April 10 deadline.
Agrokor needs another three months for creditor deal