Ministries request refinements to Vnukovo debt refinancing plan, set conditions
MOSCOW. April 22 (Interfax) - The Transport Ministry and Economic Development Ministry have examined the proposal for restructuring Vnukovo International Airport's debt prepared by Bank of Moscow , part of the VTB group, and believe it needs refinements, a source with knowledge of the matter told Interfax.
At a meeting this week, representatives of Vnukovo and VTB voiced the key parameters of the potential debt restructuring, stipulating that the bank provide a loan of 13.2-billion rubles for seven years (with the possibility of a three-year extension), on condition that the bank receive 8.4 billion rubles in state guarantees, the source said. However, according to existing standards, the state guarantees for the anti-crisis development of the enterprise cannot exceed 50% of the loan amount, while the current proposal asks for 64%, the Economic Development Ministry said. For that reason, further work on the issue is needed.
Vnukovo's biggest creditor, Bank of Moscow, suggested to the government at the end of March a restructuring of 11.9 billion rubles in debt. In exchange, the bank requested financial guarantees for Vnukovo. It also believes agreements are needed with Aeroflot subsidiaries currently based at Vnukovo - Rossiya and Pobeda - on use of the airport as their main transport hub in Moscow for 10 years. First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov ordered the submission of proposals before April 20, by the Economic Development, Transport and Finance ministries on the state guarantees and by the Transport Ministry, Rosaviatsia and Aeroflot on the airline agreements.
Vnukovo would be able to service the restructured debt simply by seeing an increase in passenger traffic on the part of the Aeroflot subsidiaries, according to the discussion at the meeting, the source told Interfax.
