Sberbank considers debt restructuring deal with Mechel
Sberbank is continuing debt restructuring talks with debt-ridden mining group Mechel and its main creditors, despite the fact that the company has not paid anything to the bank for over a year. As of June 15th, Mechel's debt was $6.772bn. On Monday, Mechel signed a debt-restructuring deal worth $1.4bn and RUB 33.7bn ($506.38m) with Gazprombank.
Russia’s Sberbank says mulls debt restructuring with Mechel

MOSCOW, Sep 1 (PRIME) -- Russia’s biggest bank Sberbank is continuing debt restructuring talks with debt-ridden metals and mining group Mechel and its main creditors and is ready to give Mechel a chance even though the company has not paid anything to the bank for over a year, a representative for Sberbank told PRIME on Tuesday.

“Sberbank is continuing talks with the main creditors and the company over the debt restructuring, but the company has not confirmed its readiness to adopt decisions acceptable by the bank,” the representative said, adding that the bank is still ready to give Mechel another chance.

“In addition to that, the bank thinks that it is wrong to suspend debt payments for over a year, to dispute existence of the debt to the bank in a court and to demand a so-called payment vacation at the same time.”

As of June 15, Mechel’s debt stood at U.S. $6.772 billion. The company said earlier it owed around $2.3 billion to Gazprombank, $1.8 billion to VTB Bank, and $1.3 billion to Sberbank.

On Monday, Mechel said it signed agreements to restructure U.S. $1.4 billion and 33.7 billion rubles of debt to Gazprombank, delaying the repayment of the principal debt until April 2017 with a subsequent monthly repayment until April 2020. Interest rates exceeding 8.75% annually were capitalized.

(66.7152 rubles – U.S. $1)

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