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Weekly Lists
February 22, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 27
bne:Banker
Ukraine's largest lender PrivatBank wins first phase of Hague arbitration against Russia
Turkish Eximbank obtains $381mn loan from ITFC
Ukraine's state-owned PrivatBank, nationalised in late 2016, has secured a partial award in its favour in the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, where the lender is challenging Russia's expropriation of the bank's investments in Ukraine's Crimea.
Specifically, the arbitral tribunal found that it has jurisdiction over all of PrivatBank’s claims against Russia, that Moscow breached its obligations under the Ukraine-Russia bi-lateral investment treaty by unlawfully expropriating PrivatBank’s investments in Crimea, and that PrivatBank is entitled to full compensation for that expropriation, the bank said in a statement e-mailed to bne IntelliNews on February 15.
The arbitral tribunal reserved for the next phase of the arbitration the question of how much compensation is due to PrivatBank for Russia's "unlawful actions". PrivatBank is seeking compensation in excess of $1bn.
Turk Eximbank has received a loan of $380.5mn from an interna- tional banking consortium under the leadership of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC).
The syndicated murabaha (interest free) financing deal was signed on February 20, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said in a statement, state-run news service Anadolu reported.
"We aim to boost Turk Eximbank's export financing support by 10% year-on-year in 2019, in order to further support to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)," she added. Thus, the ratio of SMEs supported by Turk Eximbank will be increased to 75% this year, from 70.7% in 2018, Pekcan noted.
German EOS Matrix won the tender for the sale of the first bundle of non-performing loans (NPLs) from Serbia’s bankrupt banks, the finance ministry said in a statement.
In October 2018, Serbia announced plans to call an auction for the sale of a €240mn NPL portfolio.
EOS Matrix offered the best price of €11.29 for the NPLs, the ministry said, but provided no details on the amount of outdated loans the German company is buying.
As of end-June, the share of gross NPLs held by Serbian banks decreased to 7.8%, reaching its lowest level since 2008, according to the newest data from Serbia’s central bank.
German EOS Matrix buys first bundle of Serbian bankrupt banks' NPLs for €11.29mn