President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko says that the reforms implemented in Ukraine are aimed at improving the investment climate. “We are resolutely implementing reforms to improve the investment climate significantly. The evaluation of the World Bank can be more trustworthy than the words of the president. In the Doing Business rating, Ukraine got from the 137th place, before my presidential term, to the 76th place – last year. No country has shown such dynamics. And we do everything possible to get to the top 50 shortly,” Poroshenko said in an interview with the German Handelsblatt business newspaper, quoted by the presidential press service on Monday.
According to Poroshenko, there was a thorough reform of the tax industry in Ukraine, reform in the education, medical and pension sectors, as well as energy sector in terms of state procurement and privatization, which the IMF did not initially believe in. Ukraine also carried out a revolutionary reform of the banking sector. “All these are very unpopular, yet required steps,” he said.
The president added that following the results of the competition for obtaining licenses for the use of 4G communications by mobile operators, Ukraine got UAH 8 billion instead of the expected UAH 5 billion.
“The most important thing is the opinion of investors, and many influential companies have come or returned to Ukraine,” the president said.
Metinvest mining and metal group has placed eurobonds under the 2012 eurobond refinancing program and pre-export financing facility ((PXF-financing): $825 million bonds due on April 23, 2023 and $525 million bonds due on April 23, 2026. According to information in the Bloomberg system, five-year bonds were placed at 98.986% of their face value. Taking into account the coupon of 7.75%, yield for them is 8% per annum.
The eight year bonds were placed at 98.583% of their face value. Taking into account the coupon of 8.5%, yield for them is 8.75% per annum.
As reported, on March 19 Metinvest offered the holders of eurobonds circulating in the market, the total nominal volume of which is $1.187 billion, to redeem the securities ahead of schedule.
The group at the initial stage of the offer received proposals for the buyback of eurobonds for $1.068 billion. In addition, the holders of eurobonds worth $1.149 billion agreed to amend the terms of their circulation.
The deadline for applications for redemption expires at 16:00 London time on April 19, 2018.
Metinvest also reported on achieving agreement with the creditors, who provided PXF-financing, on the revision of the terms of loans, including their extension.
Synchronously the group announced the issue of new bonds.
