Monday, June 18, 2012 -
Kazakh state-controlled BTA Bank on Friday said it has started formal talks with its creditors on the proposed debt restructuring plan.
Discussions between BTA management and the steering committee of its creditors are expected to range over the next two weeks in the southern city of Almaty, where the bank is headquartered.
Due diligence talks aim “to progress substantive negotiations on an agreed term sheet,” BTA said in a statement on its web site bta.kz.
The two sides will negotiate $4.98 billion of debt owed by the bank, now the country’s third largest lender.
The bank presented a draft of its preliminary restructuring proposal to the steering committee and its advisers during meetings in London on June 12-13.
That followed the approval to its draft restructuring plan from a Kazakh court last month.
BTA underwent a restructure only three years ago in the wake of a battering from the global financial crisis.
The government managed to persuade bondholders to cut its debt by two-thirds that time.
BTA, prior to the financial crisis, used to be Kazakhstan’s largest bank.