Foreign holders of Belarusian bonds still hope to get their money back
Belarusian ruble / Euroradio
Foreign holders of Belarusian bonds want to sell defaulted securities worth $ 800 million. But the Belgian company Euroclear, which provides financial services, does not recognize the bonds as "defaulted", but calls them "overdue".
This means that the Belarusian bonds are actually "frozen". And it means that their holders can't sell their assets, even to debt investors who make money by buying such troubled assets.
"The fact that these bonds are considered overdue in the Euroclear system means that they are blocked, there is no market for these bonds," says one of the debt holders.
Why default?
Rating agencies Moody's and Fitch declared Belarus in default on its sovereign debt a year ago. This included $800 million in bonds due in February.
U.S. and EU sanctions prevented Belarus from paying bondholders. Transactions for Belarus in euros are frozen.
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