Fitch lower Kyiv City's ratings to 'D'

"Kyiv’s eurobonds restructuring constitutes what we consider to be a distressed debt restructuring. Under our criteria, we view an exchange offer as tantamount to a default," Standard & Poor's said. Fitch treats the introduction of the interim payment moratorium on the city's eurobonds as a default in line with its distressed debt exchange (DDE) criteria. As reported, the last offer regarding a proposed swap of Kyiv notes worth $550 million for sovereign bonds was supported by the ad hoc committee of creditors. On November 5, 2015, the Kyiv City Council adopted a resolution approving the heads of terms for an exchange of its outstanding $550 million loan participation notes due 2015 and 2016 (the notes) for new sovereign bonds (after a principal haircut of 25%) for $412.5 million in aggregate principal amount of Ukrainian sovereign bonds due 2019 and 2020 (the new bonds).