The mining and metallurgical group "Metinvest" will repurchase its eurobonds maturing on June 17, 2025, for a total nominal amount of $16.27 million following the auction announced on December 9, where the price was set between 86% and 92.5%, with a total repurchase limit of EUR 70 million.
According to the company's stock exchange announcement on Thursday, after the buyback, bonds with a total nominal amount of EUR 161.886 million will remain in circulation.
It is specified that the settlements will take place on December 23.
Deutsche Bank acts as the deal's dealer-manager.
As previously reported, "Metinvest" stated that the goal of the buyback is to actively manage its debt burden, smooth out debt servicing payments, enhance the overall debt sustainability of the group, and reduce liquidity pressure due to the upcoming bond maturity, considering the increased risk to "Metinvest" related to the operational environment in Ukraine.
It was noted that intense combat actions continue to approach the assets of "Metinvest Pokrovskugol," which includes several enterprises, the main ones being the "Pokrovskoye" mine management and the "Svyato-Varvarinskaya" beneficiation plant. Together, in the first half of 2024, they produced 58% of the group’s coking coal and accounted for over a third of EBITDA. The operation of one of the three shafts of the mine was suspended last week, while at the beginning of 2024, the front was approximately 40 km away.
According to data from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the latest quotes for "Metinvest's" eurobonds maturing in 2025 with a coupon rate of 5.625% as of October 29, 2024, were 86.95%, after which the paper was delisted from trading, and on the Stuttgart exchange, it was at 86.954% on Wednesday.
"Metinvest" is a vertically integrated group of mining and metallurgical enterprises. The group’s enterprises are primarily located in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The main shareholders of the holding are the "SCM" group (71.24%) and "Smart Holding" (23.76%), which jointly manage it.