Ep 137 ft. Joseph Cotterill

Clauses & Controversies

Ukraine's Preliminary Debt Restructuring Deal Ukraine reportedly has reached terms with a subset of its bondholders, agreeing to restructure the country's roughly $24 billion in bond debt. What to make of the deal? It seems (to our view) to be premised on the IMF's entirely unrealistic assumptions about Ukraine's future debt repayment capacity. The reports we have seen about deal terms also don't explain what will happen to some important parts of the debt stock – including that of state-owned energy company Ukrenergo. Joseph Cotterill of the Financial Times joins us to explain the basic parameters of the deal, the underlying assumptions, and whether another restructuring of private debt is in the cards. And while we have Joseph, we also ask some questions about recent developments in litigation arising out of Mozambique's "tuna bonds" debacle. Producer: Leanna Doty