International rating agency S&P Global downgraded Ukraine’s long-term and short-term foreign currency credit ratings to ‘selective default’ – from ‘CC/C’ to ‘SD/SD’ – due to a missed August 1 Eurobond payment amid debt restructuring.
“We understand that the government has decided to suspend bond payments pending restructuring. To this end, the government has not made the coupon payment on its 2026 Eurobond on August 1, 2024, when the payment was due, and we do not expect payment within the bonds’ contractual grace period of 10 business days,” S&P said in a statement on its website on Saturday.
As a result, it noted, it also downgraded the rating of the sovereign’s 2026 Eurobond issue to ‘D’ (default) from ‘CC’, while the ‘CC’ rating on Ukraine’s remaining senior unsecured foreign currency bond issues was affirmed.
At the same time, the agency affirmed its ‘CCC+/C’ hryvnia sovereign (LC) ratings and ‘uaBB’ national scale rating. “We understand that Ukraine’s hryvnia-denominated sovereign debt is not subject to restructuring. The outlook on the LC rating is stable,” the statement said.
