Posted on 12/18/2013 5:08:10 PM PST by Lorianne
A jump in prices of Ukraine's dollar bonds since Russia offered a $15 billion bailout has vindicated some of the world's biggest investors who bet billions that the high-yield, high-risk creditor could avert default.
President Vladimir Putin's promise to buy Ukrainian debt in a deal dictated more by geopolitics than economics has postponed rather than eliminated the risk of Kiev defaulting.
Nevertheless, the audacity of funds such as Templeton, Fidelity, Amundi and Goldman Sachs - all of which piled into what is easily one of the world's riskiest debts - has been rewarded.
Some even stepped up their Ukrainian bond holdings when the market was falling in the second half of this year before Putin struck the deal with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Tuesday, data from Thomson Reuters company Lipper shows.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
With the deal in hand, Ukraine takes over the presidency of the CIS for 2014.
The Customs Union is not the agenda because Ukraine is broke and too deeply divided to join it. There is no doubt though that in the post-Soviet space, the Eurasian Community will become a reality by 2015.
For the time being, Ukraine will remain an observer at the activities of the CU and the the incipient Eurasian Community.
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