Templeton Cedes Ground on Ukraine Writeoff as Debt Payment Looms

Franklin Templeton has come to grips with the fact that it won’t be able to avoid losses on its $7 billion investment in Ukrainian bonds.

The investment firm and three other bondholders this week offered the eastern European nation a small amount of debt relief, the first time they’ve entertained the possibility of a writedown on their principal holdings. The size of the so-called haircut they proposed is 5 percent, a person familiar with the negotiations said on Thursday. That compares with the 40 percent Ukraine was said to have asked them for last month.