Naftogaz repays $300 mln credit line to EBRD
National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy on Monday, January 22, repaid the $300 million credit line of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, meeting all its commitments under the agreement signed in October 2015, the company has said in a press release.
The funds of the credit revolving line of the EBRD were secured by the state. They were used by the company to buy natural gas for the needs of Ukrainian consumers during the 2015-2018 heating seasons.
Under the agreement 5.3 billion cubic meters of gas under the EBRD procedures were bought on the western border of Ukraine.
Naftogaz recalled that one of the conditions for the provision of the loan by the EBRD was the implementation of the action plan reforming corporate governance at Naftogaz by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In December 2017, the government appointed the new supervisory board, although the documents that authorize the supervisory board to act in line with the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have not yet approved.
Naftogaz said that in autumn 2017 the government did not ask the EBRD to extend the current agreement.
Earlier Managing Director of the EBRD in Eastern Europe and Caucasus Francis Malige told Interfax-Ukraine that the opening of the new facility will depend on relation of Naftogaz with the Ukrainian government and on the corporate governance progress.
Malige said that it is not enough to create a supervisory board with the majority of independent members and it is not enough that Naftogaz can reform its corporate governance on its own.