Ministry of Finance of Ukraine won Risk Awards 2023

The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine became the winner of Risk Awards 2023 in the nomination "Sovereign Risk Manager of the Year" from Risk.net.

This award is the result of the effective work of the Ministry of Finance team in the field of public debt management and continued active cooperation with investors in Ukrainian assets in the conditions of a full-scale war.

A few days after the start of the full-scale invasion, the first auction for the sale of war bonds was held. Thanks to the weekly auctions of local government bonds, more than USD 7 billion was attracted to the state budget as of the end of 2022. In addition, in August 2022, an agreement was reached with investors to extend the maturity of all 13 series of government Eurobonds and postpone coupon payments for two years, which made it possible to save about USD 6 billion to finance the priority needs of Ukraine. These measures, together with concessional financing from the partner countries and international organizations, allowed Ukraine to stabilize the financial system and prevent a liquidity crisis.

In comments for Risk.net, the Government Commissioner for Public Debt Management Yuriy Butsa and the Head of Investor Relations of the Ministry of Finance Alla Danylchuk talked about the management of Ukraine's debt in the conditions of a full-scale war, cooperation with investors in Ukrainian assets and resources for the recovery of Ukraine.

Yuriy Butsa: "The agreement we reached with Ukraine's sovereign Eurobonds investors last August is pretty much the fastest agreement ever made between a sovereign and creditors. The reason is that we maintained constant contact with investors throughout the war and took into account the feedback we received before deciding to initiate the transaction.

Borys Matyash, Director of Debt Capital Markets of the CEEMEA region at BNP Paribas, commenting on the award, noted that the goodwill that Ukraine has earned over the past few years by cooperating with investors became a key factor in reaching an agreement with investors last year: "This has helped them mobilise financial resources in a quick and efficient manner, gathering support from the investor community to create an additional fiscal space at the time when it is needed the most, [and thereby] ensuring that the country continues to function and rebuild towards a prosperous future for the people of Ukraine.”

"Our relationship with investors is incredibly important to us, so we’ve done all we can to remain accessible to them," commented Alla Danylchuk. "We didn’t want to lose all of the trust we’d built up with investors over the years because of this war."