Translated material
Debts for a long time
Mezhprombank owes the Central Bank itself about 32 billion rubles. The Central Bank pledges the shipbuilding assets of the bank's owner, Senator from Tuva Sergei Pugachev. However, the actual value of the collateral remains controversial. An official statement from the press service of the United Industrial Corporation (UPK) states that, based on the results of an independent assessment, the value of the OPK Shipbuilding division, which is pledged to the Central Bank, was determined to be 101.4 billion rubles. These assets include 88% of the shares of the Baltic Shipyard, 72.23% of the shares of the Severnaya Verf shipyard, 75.81% of the Iceberg Central Design Bureau. The OPK claims that by selling the collateral at the specified price, the Central Bank will be able to repay not only issued loans, but also replenish the bankruptcy estate in case of bankruptcy, and the bank will be able to pay off other debts. “The amount of funds exceeds the total amount of MPB’s liabilities, which will make it possible to fully repay the bank’s debt to all creditors,” the defense industry believes. However, experts doubt that the assets can be sold at such a price - 101.4 billion rubles. “Previously, Sergei Pugachev tried to sell these assets to the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation in order to pay off MPB’s debts,” notes a member of the board of a private Russian bank. — The seller insisted on a price of about 90 billion rubles, but USC offered him no more than 23 billion rubles. The problem is that in this case the buyer has an advantage, because only he is able to buy these specific assets. Therefore, the situation remains difficult for the Central Bank; USC is unlikely to change its decision and increase its offer.”
According to experts, the total amount of Mezhprombank’s debt to clients is 13 billion rubles. This summer, Severstal filed three claims in arbitration for a total amount of more than 4 billion rubles. In addition, the Moscow Arbitration Court scheduled a preliminary hearing for October 20 on the claim of Sukhoi Civil Aircraft to recover almost $20 million from Mezhprombank. In addition, at the beginning of July, MPB was unable to pay off Eurobonds and asked investors to defer the repayment of bonds worth €200 million for a year. In July, the bank defaulted on the issue of Eurobonds and persuaded investors to agree to an installment plan for this issue for another year, until 2011. They also received a premium of 50 euros per bond (5% of par value). In addition, there is another issue of Eurobonds in circulation, for $200 million, maturing until 2013. Its holders had the opportunity to present the securities for early redemption, since a cross-default occurred on the issue. However, they did not do this. The issue of bonds with a maturity until 2011 has additional guarantees issued by companies that own shares in shipbuilding assets of the defense industry.
“The point is that the funds after the sale of the shipbuilding assets of the military-industrial complex will be used to repay the Central Bank loan, and the remaining funds, if any, should be used to repay the 2011 bonds,” explained RIA Novosti the head of the debt securities market analysis group at Troika Dialogue" Alexander Kudrin. According to him, the most likely option seems to be that the money received from the sale of collateral will not be enough to cover the debt even to the Central Bank. “Then holders of 2011 and 2013 bonds will be in an equal situation. They fall into the fourth line of creditors,” Mr. Kudrin noted. Now both issues are in circulation, but are quoted at a level of approximately 15-16% of the face value, and there is no requirement for early repayment of them. At the same time, the revocation of the issuer's banking license is the basis for filing demands for early payment of the principal debt on Eurobonds.
On Friday, the international rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of the Moscow Bank from the level of Caa2 to the minimum, C. The long-term ratings of debt obligations and deposits of Mezhprombank in national and foreign currencies were downgraded. At the same time, Moody's confirmed Mezhprombank's banking financial stability rating at E level, as well as the bank's short-term deposit ratings with a Not-Prime value. The outlook for Mezhprombank’s global ratings is “stable”. The downgrade of Mezhprombank's ratings to the minimum level reflects the opinion of Moody's analysts that Mezhprombank's priority unsecured creditors will lose more than 50% of their investments due to the bank's insolvency, not counting deposits of individuals, which amount to no more than 700 thousand rubles. and will be reimbursed by the Deposit Insurance Agency.
The amount of liabilities to depositors of Mezhprombank is 49.8 million rubles. The bank was not a participant in the deposit insurance system (DIS). According to the DIA statement, preliminary payments will probably begin no earlier than March 2011.
As Gennady Melikyan stated, the volume of deposits in MPB’s subsidiary retail bank, Mezhprombank Plus (part of the SSV), does not exceed 2 billion rubles. At the same time, he repeated that the Central Bank is not yet going to deprive him of his license. “We do not yet see the fatal inevitability of the death of Mezhprombank Plus. He has the opportunity to survive. The bank will need to build up reserves for some assets. Of course, he is influenced by the situation around his big brother and the group's image losses. But. I repeat, there is no fatal inevitability of the death of this bank, at least for now, especially if it receives support from shareholders,” said the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank.