BTA Bank has survived. At the end of May 2010, the Kazakh bank won 92% approval from creditors for a package of different debt restructuring options that will reduce its overall burden to $4.4bn from $11.4bn, with a new maturity profile running from eight to 20 years, while handing 18.5% of the bank's equity to creditors. All this was carried out while the bank remained fully operational, rather than entering into administration.
"Organising the restructuring with the participation of creditors while making sure that the bank will continue to operate, without having to resort to a full-state bailout or create a good bank/bad bank structure, is something that in our experience is unprecedented," says Eric Lalo, a managing director in the sovereign advisory team at Lazard, which worked on the deal alongside UBS. Lazard also advised on the Alliance Bank restructuring in Kazakhstan that was proceeding simultaneously with BTA's efforts.
