OREANDA-NEWS. August 17, 2009. RBC which faces financial problems, says that inability to restructure its debt portfolio could make the company go bankrupt. RBC launched negotiations with the largest creditors on restructuring its entire debt portfolio back in late 2008 in order to ascertain its financial standing, since the crisis took a toll on RBC’s liquid assets in 2H 2008, reported the press-centre of FINAM.

In late July, RBC and Mikhail Prokhorov’s Onexim Group sent out a new debt restructuring proposal to the creditors of the Russian media holding. In 1H 2009, RBC’s accounts payable reached RUB 3.5 bn, with arrears reaching RUB 1.8 bn and RUB 1.6 bn in bond defaults. Some of RBC’s creditors sued the holding in court.

The first was Alfa Bank, which filed a claim back in 2008 seeking to recover USD 41.8 mn in principal and interest from securities and forex forward transactions. “A claim has been filed which, if upheld, could have a deleterious effect on the issuer’s operations or financial standing”, RBC said about Alfa Bank’s claim.

In 2009, the number of claims against RBC with potentially adverse implications has risen sharply.