Kazakhstan
ALMATY. Sept 23 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's BTA Bank plans to complete the restructuring of its financial debt in the coming months, the bank said in a press release.
"In the framework of restructuring, BTA Bank is preparing options for selection and will complete the restructuring process in the coming months," the press release said.
The bank said that it had already signed a memorandum of mutual understanding with a creditor committee for debt restructuring.
The memorandum say that BTA and the committee had agreed to continue to work on developing terms for restructuring. The terms for restructuring in regards to loan reserves will be based on due diligence at the bank implemented by KPMG and Deloitte. "The memorandum of mutual understanding does not place any legal obligations on the creditors. The restructuring will be implemented through meeting preliminary set terms," the statement said.
The memorandum was signed following a meeting between BTA consultants and the creditor committee held from September 14 to 17 in London.
The bank's foreign debt is estimated at $13 billion.
The state fund Samruk-Kazyna has been the main shareholder in BTA Bank since February 2009 when it acquired 75.1% of shares through anti-crisis support for the bank.
For 2008 BTA Bank was ranked sixth by assets among the CIS banks and first among the Kazakh banks according to the Interfax-1000 ranking prepared by the Interfax Center of Economic Analysis (CEA).