Bondholders of Mriya agroholding have filed a claim to Ternopil business court asking to collect the debt on the bonds from sureties, Mriya has said in a press release.

According to the document, BNY Mellon Corporate Trustee Services Limited, the trust company acting in the interests of all holders, filed the claim.

The claim relates to the surety obligations of the 68 Mriya group companies for the overdue debt obligations of Mriya Agro Holding Plc (Cyprus) of $573 million (approximately UAH 15 billion), which consists of the outstanding principal amount and interest due since August 2014 when the company defaulted under the eurobonds by not paying contractual interest.

The claim was filed in Ternopil since the defenders with the largest assets are located there.

The court hearing is scheduled for December 16, 2016.

"Most corporate eurobond issuances by Ukrainian companies are structured in the same way as Mriya's, with the non-resident holding company as the issuer of the eurobonds, a large bank acting as trustee for the bondholders and the issuer’s Ukrainian group operating companies as sureties for the non-resident holding company’s obligations. As a result, the above court case will create a precedent for all investors in Ukrainian corporate eurobonds since the decision on BNY Mellon’s claim against Mriya's Ukrainian group companies will test the attitude of the Ukrainian judiciary to the eurobond structure supported by the sureties from the issuer's Ukrainian operating companies," the company said.

Mriya’s current management believes that the claim is justified and will not influence the on-going process of restructuring $1.1 billion of debt.

"We see the bondholders’ claim as an effort to level out conditions for all parties in the restructuring since most of our creditor banks have already secured similar court decisions," Mriya's CEO Simon Cherniavsky said.

Mriya Agro Holding is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding company founded in 1992.