| Headline: Ukraine exchanges its bonds Source: Euromoney Date: April 2000 Author: Michael Peterson Issuer: Ukraine Amount: e2.6 billion Type of issue: Exchange offer Launched: February 4 2000 Lead manager: ING Barings Here's the challenge. Find the thousands of individual investors who bought the Republic of Ukraine's retail-targeted bonds, tell them Ukraine can't keep up the payments and persuade at least 85% of them to accept a new, less onerous, bond instead. That was the task facing lead manager ING Barings - with syndicate members Credit Suisse First Boston, Commerzbank and Salomon Smith Barney - when the east European sovereign launched an exchange offer for all its outstanding international issues. Ukraine began the new century in big trouble. It had to pay $3.2 billion on its debts in 2000 and its foreign reserves stood at only $1 billion. But, unlike Pakistan which faced a similar problem last November, Ukraine couldn't simply turn to a small number of institutional investors to agree a bond restructuring. Its paper was scattered far and wide. |
