ONEXIMbank was given another six months
Yesterday, the Moscow Arbitration Court extended the external supervision procedure at ONEXIMbank until July 1. And the day before, the Central Bank extended the validity of his license until the same date. For the first time in Russian practice, bank creditors received carte blanche to independently carry out restructuring. Now only they themselves can ruin the deal.

As Kommersant has already reported, according to the agreement reached in November between the bank and the committee of its creditors, the restructuring deal should be completed by July 1. Therefore, the deputy chairman of ONEXIMbank, Vladimir Ryskin, who is negotiating with creditors, regarded yesterday’s court decision as natural. “The court simply made sure that we were complying with all agreements with creditors and gave us the time necessary to complete the transaction,” he said.

The restructuring plan for ONEXIMbank provides that creditors will receive shares in a trust company into which the assets of ONEXIMbank (approximately $1.2 billion), 12-year Eurobonds to be issued by Rosbank ($130 million), and a one-time payment in cash ($105 million) will be transferred. Among the holders of different claims, these three types of payments will be distributed in different proportions.

Thus, the authorities did everything possible so that ONEXIMbank and its creditors could come to an agreement. However, this does not mean that bank restructuring is a done deal. According to Kommersant's information, a meeting of creditors - owners of Eurobonds of ONEXIM Bank, whose status is close to individuals, has been scheduled for the third decade of April. The agreement to the restructuring plan received from the committee of Eurobond holders was "in principle". Now they must vote for him practically by name.
In principle, the committee's agreement implies that Eurobond holders will accept the terms of the restructuring. However, their decision may change. It may be affected by the results of the presidential elections or changes in the situation with the bankruptcy of Sidanco, which is a major debtor of ONEXIMbank.
Meanwhile, earlier the bank's management made it clear that if the holders of Eurobonds at the last meeting do not agree with the restructuring plan, then the terms of the deal will not change. Both management and other creditors will simply refuse it. That is, the bank will follow the usual bankruptcy procedure provided for by Russian legislation.

ALEXANDER J-SEMENOV

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 27 dated 02/18/2000, p. 7