Elektrim pays off debt with mystery funds

"The trustee left EUR 21 million in the account to cover judicial costs from the High Court, as well as bondholders fees," said Mirosław Obarski, spokesman for the bondholders committee. "The court also decided to leave some money for future court fees." Bond owners naturally hope that Elektrim will make the final payment soon. The company still owes a lot more than EUR 21 million, and according to creditors even with this substantial debt repayment Elektrim's collateral on assets will not be removed until the so-called ultimate payment is taken care of. This payment should constitute 25% of Elektrim's total property value, or upwards of EUR 160 million. It is also still unclear where the company obtained the funds from to make the EUR 504 million payment in the first place. It may have received the sum from Deutsche Telekom, which bought a 48% stake in Elektrims's mobile phone operator PTC, however, the amount was not mentioned in any of Elektrim's financial statements and France's Vivendi still claims that it owns the shares. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 9; Parkiet p. 12; Rzeczpospolita, p. B3) M.M.