Ukraine is due to pay Hr 29.41 billion on its state debt in the second quarter of 2012, including Hr 23.61 billion in June alone, the Finance Ministry said in a sovereign debt management plan for the second quarter, published on April 10.
Under the plan, the ministry expects receipts on debt operations in the second quarter to total Hr 33.55 billion (including capitalization of national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy), including Hr 17.65 billion (about $2.2 billion) from outside of the country.
The ministry clarified that it plans to borrow the largest amount – Hr 20.5 billion – in May.
Under the plan, long-term borrowing will amount to 68.9%, medium-term 13.8% and short-term 17.3%.
"The selection of the instructions with which the state budget will be financed will depend on the situation on the domestic and foreign financial markets. […] In the course of the quarter, sources of external borrowing could be the IMF, IBRD, EU, bilateral loans and issues of eurobonds," the plan states.
The ministry also said that it is working with the National Bank to prepare the prospectus for a 2012 issue of government domestic loan bonds.
It was reported earlier that Ukraine at the beginning of the year selected JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, VTB Capital and Sberbank of Russia as lead managers and was prepared to enter the eurobond market with a new issue in early March, but did not do so. Market players believe the offering was derailed by reports that the country plans to restructure its debt to the IMF.
First Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovsky said at the end of March that Ukraine was waiting for the lowest possible price before entering the market. In the course of negotiations with the lead managers, guidance for the eurobond yield was lowered from 10.25% to 8.5%, he said. Market players said Ukrainian eurobonds with duration of five years or more are priced at a yield of 9.3-9.5% or higher.
Since the beginning of the year, the government has been making payments on the state debt with domestic borrowing, expanding the range of instruments with foreign currency domestic bonds.
