Minister Sultanov announces three options of UNPF funds repayment by IBA
“At your instruction, I have talked to my colleague – Minister of Finance of Azerbaijan Samir Sharifov who was authorized to settle this issue on behalf of the Azerbaijani Government. As he explained, the devaluation of the manat made the IBA stop fulfilling its obligations before the creditors. The problem is under control of the Azerbaijani Government, namely of the Ministry of Finance, who say that Azerbaijan will take every effort to ensure the interests of all the creditors of the bank. We have requested them to timely and proper inform our NB and Government representatives on the process,” said Sultanov addressing the meeting participants.
The Minister assured that maximum efforts are taken to minimize negative consequences and defend the interests of the contributors as well as to ensure safety of the principal amount of the loan – USD250mln.
"On 23 May, three versions of debt restructuring were proposed. The first option is exchange of USD250mln of the bank’s current liabilities for USD200mln of public securities of Azerbaijan with a 12-year maturity at 5.125% rate. The second option is to swap IBA’s USD250mln for USD250mln of public securities for a 15-year period at 3.5% at par. And the third option is to exchange USD250mln of the IBA’s current liabilities into USD250mln of the same bank’s newly issued bonds with the payment period of 7 years and lowered interest rate at 3.5%. After thorough discussions, the working group consisting of the representatives of the National Bank and the Government will do its best to minimize the losses for the UNPF,” said Sultanov.
According to him, the creditors of the bank are planning to meet in July to discuss the restructuring of the bank as offered by Azerbaijani side.