Fifteen large funds hold the major part of Ukraine's sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt, the Ukrainian government's special envoy for state debt negotiations Vitaliy Lisovenko said in an interview with the Segodnya newspaper.
The largest of them is Franklin Templeton, he said.
“These funds are institutions that accumulate funds of investors. The owners of the funds are not owners of the funds. In addition, eurobonds, the form of foreign debt they hold, is a tool which is freely traded on the market and they could change the holder at any moment,” Lisovenko said.
He did not disclose other details on the holders of the debt and their share of the total number of eurobonds issued by Ukraine.
As reported, the creditors committee consisted of funds governed or represented by BTG Pactual Europe LLP, Franklin Advisers Inc., TCW Investment Management Company and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and had regular contacts with the other holders of Ukrainian bonds, which hold in aggregate over $10 billion worth of Ukrainian debt. The creditors objected to writing the debt off.
