Ukraine’s youngest billionaire, Kostyantin Zhevago, who almost lost his iron ore producer, Ferrexpo, when markets crashed two years ago, is back raising cash. According to Millenium Capital, Ferrexpo completed its road-show July 16 planning to place Eurobonds worth $500 million. The company plans to ramp up production by 50% over the next five years, and has the iron ore reserves to do so. ADDENDUM: It appears the Eurobond issue has been postponed.
This follows on the heels of fellow billionaire, Rinat Akhmetov, and the announcement that his steelmaker Metinvest raised $700 million via syndicated loan.
Ukraine has had success recently, negotiating a new $14.9 billion loan program with the IMF. As a result, Fitch upgraded Ukraine’s sovereign bonds stating “The IMF agreement improves the sovereign’s financing flexibility and will unlock additional funds from other international financial institutions.”
There is still a long-way to go — Ukraine’s real GDP fell 15.1% in 2009, according to Fitch, marking the second-worst economic performance after Latvia of the over 100 sovereigns rated by the agency — but billionaire confidence appears to be back up.
