Johannesburg - Credit Suisse Group, which helped arrange part of the $2
billion in Mozambique state-backed loans that plunged the country into crisis,
disputed that it received more than $100 million in fees for arranging the
financing.
The bank was responding to Kroll LLC’s audit report into the
debts that said it and Russia’s VTB Bank PJSC was paid $200 million in
arrangement and contractor fees. The investigation showed that Mozambican state
companies failed to account for about a quarter of the proceeds of $2 billion
in loans being investigated, according to the Kroll report.
“The reporting that Credit Suisse realized $100 million or
more in ‘arranging’ fees is incorrect and misleading,” a spokesman for the
lender said in an emailed statement Sunday. “Banking fees for Credit Suisse totalled
$23 million –- roughly 2.3 percent of the total financings and is in line with
comparable emerging-market financing transactions.”
The summary of the audit into three government loans could
help pave the way for restructuring talks with owners of the debt and mend
relations with the International Monetary Fund. The fund halted payments to the
world’s ninth-poorest nation in April last year, when the government revealed
it guaranteed two previously hidden loans by state-owned companies totalling
more than $1 billion.
‘Information Gaps’
The IMF, which has said the probe was necessary for it to
resume funding to the country, noted “information gaps” on how the money was
used but otherwise welcomed the release of the audit. “These documents
constitute an important step toward greater transparency regarding the loans,”
it said in a statement Saturday.
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The Finance Ministry announced in October it can’t afford to
service its commercial dollar debt, and defaulted on its $727 million Eurobond at
the start of the year. It’s also missed payments on two state-guaranteed loans.
Arrears for all three loans total about $490 million.
VTB won’t comment on the Kroll audit until the Moscow-based
lender has completed a detailed review of the report, according to a statement
from the press office.