Bakhmatiuk ready to restructure debt to NBU, Deposit Guarantee Fund on conditions of ex-shareholders of PrivatBank
Former owner of banks VAB and Financial Initiative Oleh Bakhmatiuk accuses the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) of double standards and confirms his readiness to restructure his debt and the debt of companies affiliated with him to the NBU and the Individuals Deposit Guarantee Fund at the tougher conditions for himself compared to those announced on Thursday regarding the restructuring of the debt of ex-shareholders of PrivatBank.
"Let Valeriya Gontareva [NBU Governor] comment why it is possible to give six months to restructure the dent and 10 years to pay it to former shareholders of Privat, while it is impossible to give seven years to Bakhmatiuk. Why she has such double approaches?" he told Interfax-Ukraine.
The businessman said that the conditions of restructuring of the UAH 155 billion credit portfolio announced by PrivatBank Board Chairman Oleksandr Shlapak are right, as they allow retaining businesses and return the debt to the bank.
Bakhmatiuk denied words of Gontareva she said in the interview with the Liga publication that he allegedly did not try to restructure his debt and submitted no official offer and that the option of the partial nationalization of VAB Bank was never discussed.
The businessman said that in 2014 a protocol to return VAB Bank from the critical state via an additional capitalization approved by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, her First Deputy Oleksandr Pysaruk and Finance Minister Shlapak was drawn up and signed. Bakhmatiuk guaranteed investment of $200 million. However, the implementation of this step-by-step plan was frustrated using a letter from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He also said that around four months ago at a meeting with Head of the Deposit Guarantee Fund Kostinatyn Vorushylin, Head of the National Investment Council Borys Lozhkin in the presence of the president he handed proposals to restructure his debt to Gontareva. The businessman said that at present the NBU head avoids contacts with him and his representatives.
Bakhmatiuk also said that statements of Gontareva that the state is to inject UAH 3 billion to capital of Ukreximbank and Oschadbank to cover reserves the banks formed for UAH 6.2 billion credits issued to companies affiliated with him are nonsense.
"Soon I would be guilty for all credits issued by these banks," he said.
He also said that information presented by Gontareva about the UAH 28.2 billion affiliated credits is untrue.
"There is a conclusion after the inspection conducted before temporary administration was introduced to VAB Bank signed by the NBU headed then by Gontareva. According to these documents, the bank had some UAH 4.8 billion of affiliated credits," he said.
He also said that he is in active dialog with the Deposit Guarantee Fund and paid around UAH 1 billion of the debt to the fund.