Ukraine finance minister ready for direct talks with private creditors

Макроэкономика 30.06.2015 Ukrainian Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko remains ready to meet with private creditors without preconditions if the creditor’s committee – which holds the biggest portion of Ukrainian private debt – enters into confidentiality agreements with the Ukrainian government, according to a June 29 MinFin statement. Jaresko called upon the committee to seek a collaborative solution on the debt operation as soon as possible, and regrets that the committee “consistently refused to enter into direct negotiations with Ukraine under standard confidentiality terms,” according to the MinFin statement. “Concerns about the impact of receiving confidential information on the creditors’ trading activity has been used as an excuse not to meet with Ukrainian representatives.” Recall, the trilateral meeting with representatives of the committee, MinFin and the IMF is scheduled for today in Washington. Alexander Paraschiy: We are slightly surprised with this statement, as we wonder what particular confidential information is MinFin going to share with the creditors. Before that, MinFin was stressing that its position in the talks with creditors is fully transparent. We still expect that that today’s meeting with creditors will bring much more clarity about the scope of the debt operation, while do not rule out that some new meetings will be needed to agree on the details of the restructuring of USD 20 bln in state and guaranteed debt.