Report: Russia’s Sberbank, Mechel yet to sign debt restructuring

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (PRIME) – Top Russian bank Sberbank and debt-ridden metals and mining group Mechel are yet to sign a debt restructuring deal as the company’s main creditor, Gazprombank, has not coordinated conditions that Sberbank had set to Mechel, Sberbank CEO German Gref said in an interview to Rossiya 24 television channel broadcast Friday.

“We have now coordinated conditions with Gazprombank that are acceptable for us for the restructuring, and if Gazprombank reaches same conditions with Mechel, we will be generally ready to sign (the restructuring deal) as well,” he said.

But if Gazprombank and Mechel do not coordinate the conditions, Sberbank will file a bankruptcy suit against the company in 2016.

“As far as I know, the (ruble) devaluation has significantly helped the company, but its large-scale problems have not been solved. We will hope that they will coordinate (the conditions), but we are not disbanding the reserve, we will stick to all the possibilities until the end. If they don’t coordinate, we will be ready to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of next year and so on,” Gref said.

Mechel owes around U.S. $2.3 billion to Gazprombank, $1.8 billion to VTB Bank, and $1.3 billion to Sberbank. As of September 1, Mechel’s total debt stood at $6.313 billion. According to the company’s materials, Mechel’s net debt stood at $6.178 billion as of December 10.

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