The government will deal with the debts "Mechel"

The situation with the debts of the Mechel metallurgical giant will be discussed at a meeting of the company's management and its creditors with Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, the newspaper Kommersant writes. Sources in the metallurgical and banking sectors told the publication that the government showed the initiative that the banks would not "make sudden movements" fraught with "social consequences".

The representative of Arkady Dvorkovich did not reveal the schedule of Deputy Prime Minister, in Sword and banks refused comment. The main creditors of the company are VTB, Sberbank and Gazprombank.

According to the newspaper, the debts of Zakredi Metallurgists (in addition to Mechel, this is Rusal and Evraz), along with other problems of the industry, discussed the prime minister Dmitry Medvedev a week ago. The meeting turned out to be "chaotic", since everyone was worried about different things. But Arkady Dvorkovich noted that the government "calls for banks to constructively treat negotiations on the restructuring of the debt of those companies that have too high."

The difficult financial situation of the metallurgical giant has long been known. The problems began back in 2008, when at one of the meetings, Vladimir Putin recalled that Mechel was selling raw materials for export at prices twice as lower than internal and offered to send the doctor to the chose Zyuzin.

The debt "Mechel" as of June this year amounted to $ 9.55 billion. 58% of it falls on Gazprombank, VTB and Sberbank. Another 16% of the debt falls on the issues of Mechel bonds, most of which belong to the State Bank. The companies are coming significant payments on loans ($ 2.5 billion in 2014), and the situation in the metallurgical market is weak.

Investbankers call the "swords" "zombie": it has no money to pay on debts that are so great that it is unprofitable to bankrupt it to creditors. This, as Vedomosti recently wrote, is one of the few companies that has not reduced from the 2008 crisis, but increased the debt 1.8 times.

In October, the company appealed to creditors with a request to provide a carpet vacation (revision of the conditions for issuing loans). On November 13, the company shares collapsed on the Moscow Exchange by 40%. Subsequently, part of the fall was played out, but the volatility of the papers of the "swordsman" remains.

On November 25, Mechel managed to agree with foreign creditors on the extension of the holidays before the end of next year. The agreement, according to Vedomosti, is signed on behalf of the syndicate of banks, including, ING Bank, Societe Generale, UniSredit, Comerzbank aktiensellSchaft, Raiffeisen Bank International, Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation, ICBC (London). The borrowers were the Yakutugol and South Kuzbass, which are part of the Mechel-Mining.