May 20, 2015, 23:33 / Business

Sberbank does not want to see Mechel as a debtor

The bank began negotiations on the assignment of claims against the company for loans worth $1.4 billion Vitaly Petleva Sberbank has not yet managed to collect the debt from Mechel / M. Golodnov / RIA Novosti

Sberbank is discussing the sale of Mechel’s debt with a “serious investor,” Interfax quotes the bank’s first deputy chairman, Maxim Poletaev. He did not say with whom the negotiations are underway. Poletaev only clarified that these are Russian buyers, but not VTB , Gazprombank or other main creditors of Mechel. Previously, a person close to the bank told Vedomosti that at the beginning of the year, Sberbank nevertheless communicated with Gazprombank regarding the sale of Mechel’s debt to it, but the proposal “was not substantive.” was interested in buying out Mechel shares Forbes reported on Wednesday that AFK Sistema , but the negotiations did not lead to anything (see inset).

Didn't negotiate

Negotiations with Sberbank on the purchase of Mechel shares were conducted by the owner of AFK Sistema, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, Forbes writes, citing an acquaintance of the entrepreneur and a person close to the creditors of the mining and metallurgical company. But Yevtushenkov and Sistema President Mikhail Shamolin denied this information yesterday.

Poletaev claims that Sberbank intends to sell Mechel’s debt at par: “It is not worth the discount.” However, the top manager clarified that the sale of debt is not the main scenario for resolving the situation with Mechel; Sberbank still insists on repaying the debt of $1.4 billion. Moreover, on May 7, the bank filed a claim for recovery from the company’s subsidiaries overdue debt, interest and fines in the amount of 3.78 billion rubles. Sberbank is claiming overdue principal debt for 2.87 billion rubles, interest debt for 1 billion rubles. and other penalties and fines, says a Mechel representative. Last week, the company fully repaid the debt on interest, “payments on the body of the debt are the subject of discussion,” he added.

It will be extremely difficult for the bank to sell Mechel’s debt without a discount, Raiffeisenbank debt analyst Denis Poryvai is sure. “Mechel bonds are now trading at 57.3% of their face value. But when selling bank debt and determining the discount, the assets pledged against it will be taken into account,” he says.

Mechel has no direct debt to Sberbank; it is owed by the subsidiaries of the mining and metallurgical company - Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, Mechel Trading and Southern Kuzbass. The loans from these companies pledged 50% plus 2 shares of Mechel Mining and the Beloretsk Metallurgical Plant, as well as equipment and real estate of the Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant. Taking into account such a deposit, the discount could be 20–30%, Rip is sure.

At the end of 2014, Sberbank created reserves for the debts of Mechel’s subsidiaries: 100% according to RAS and 60% according to IFRS, said the bank’s financial director Alexander Morozov. Two Vedomosti sources close to the bank hope that after the sale of the debt of Mechel’s subsidiaries, it will be possible to completely dissolve the reserves.

Mechel's total debt to creditors is $6.7 billion, 69% of which is owed to Gazprombank, VTB and Sberbank.

“Gazprombank and VTB are making serious progress on the situation with Mechel, but Sberbank is not,” Poletaev said yesterday, describing the situation with Mechel’s bad debts. He clarified that information about progress in the negotiations was announced on Tuesday at a meeting in the government, Interfax writes. Two government officials claim that the Mechel issue was not discussed on Tuesday.

Sberbank most likely realized that Mechel does not have the opportunity in the current conditions to repay the debt in the foreseeable future, says UBS analyst Nikolai Sosnovsky. Yes, the company can service the debt with varying degrees of success, but there is no way to repay it. And the only way out in this situation may be to sell the debt to a strategic investor who can agree with the shareholders on entering the capital, Sosnovsky believes.

A representative of VTB and a representative of Gazprombank refused to comment on the situation.

Corrected version. The original version can be viewed in the smart version of Vedomosti