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bank has not paid anything following an appellate court ruling in favor of the Surkis family. PrivatBank is now appealing that decision in the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The lender also stated that it has enough liquidity to implement any court ruling, without the need to raise additional capital. "Based on this information, Privatbank appears to have resolved its issues with the Surkis family out of court," Alexander Paraschiy at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital wrote in a note on September 25. "That is encouraging for the bailed-in holders of PrivatBank Eurobonds as it increases the likelihood that the bank will offer some out-of-court resolution for them as well." Earlier this year, the business court of Kyiv, a first-tier court, ruled that PrivatBank must partially satisfy claims of the holders of the lender's bailed-in Eurobonds, and specifically, to repay $574,000 to THEO Worldwide Corp, according to Finclub.net online outlet. The Panama-based THEO Worldwide Corp. has asked the court to cancel the bail-in of the $600,000 in PrivatBank bonds that it held (including $400,000 in senior notes due in January, 2018 and $200,000 in subordinated notes due in February, 2021) and compensate losses from the bank in total amount of $663,000. THEO Worldwide Corp. has filed a claim against PrivatBank and UK-based SPV Credit Finance seeking to declare invalid the bail-in procedure for the bank's loan participation notes during the nationalization of the bank and collect $663,000 of debt from the bank on securities held by the claimant.
Vienna Insurance Group is mulling buying a fifth Ukrainian insurance company to position itself among the top three insurance companies in Ukraine. At a press conference, board member Franz Fuchs said he sees growth, noting that Ukraine has millions of uninsured houses and cars.
Russian state-owned banks Sberbank, VTB and VEB are challenging last week's ruling of the Kyiv court of appeals to seize the shares of their Ukrainian subsidiaries following a claim filed by 17 companies and one person - ex-chairman of the board of nationalised PrivatBank Oleksandr Dubilet - that lost their assets in Crimea as a result of its annexation by Russia in 2014. Ukraine's Supreme Court received three appeals against the ruling on September 14, according to local media. The ruling of the Kyiv court of appeals followed a ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague that the Russian government must compensate almost two dozen Ukrainian companies associated with close confidantes of Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky for their losses incurred from the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Swiss asset management company ResponAbility Participations AG has bought a 40% stake in Bank Lviv . The bank’s press service says the Swiss plan to buy a controlling 51% stake from Icelandic investor and chess grandmaster Margeir Pétursson. For ResponsAbility, which manages $3bn in investments in 90 countries, this is the first investment in Ukraine.
8.2 Central Bank policy rate
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) hiked its key policy rate to 18.0% from 17.5% as of September 7 in order to achieve inflation targets amid increasing external risk factors, the regulator reported in its September 6 press release. The decision was reached despite the current disinflationary trend.
July consumer inflation slowing to 8.9% y/y, and core inflation cooling to 8.8%
43 UKRAINE Country Report October 2018 www.intellinews.com