UPDATE 1-Naftogaz gets $500 mln bond default waiver

By Sebastian Tong

LONDON, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine's ailing state energy firm Naftogaz obtained a waiver from foreign creditors on Thursday to avoid technical default on a $500 million Eurobond UA020207868=.

"The waiver was passed and they have until the end of March to get a sign-off from their auditors. It looks like they will get that in the next few days," a fund manager invested in the company told Reuters.

A notice issued to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Euroclear and Clearstream on Thursday said that a resolution had been passed to allow the company to extend a waiver on presentation of its 2006 results until March 31, 2008.

The firm was in technical default on the 8.125 percent Eurobond due 2009 because it had failed to provide the results, after missing two previous deadlines.

The Ukrainian government has said that Naftogaz is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. It has been unable to pass on to ordinary consumers steep gas price rises from Russia since 2006 and lost the right to supply industry.

Analysts have said that should Naftogaz default on the Eurobond, clauses in other debt agreements would force it to pay out a total of $2.5 billion.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's new government threw Naftogaz a lifeline earlier this year in the form of a $2.4 billion sovereign guarantee.

The fund manager said the overwhelming majority voted in favour of the waiver, and that the sovereign guarantee had reassured investors.