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UPDATE 1-Ukraine debt concerns hit European bank shares
AFX | November 20, 2009 | 10:04 AM EST

LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - European bank shares fell 1.1 percent on Friday, with some traders citing concerns over banks' possible exposure to Ukrainian debt. Last week, Ukraine's acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky said the state railway company was seeking to restructure a $550 million syndicated loan organised by Barclays after failing to repay a portion of it. Rating agency Fitch said it was not aware of any Ukrainian default on its sovereign debt or any debt with a sovereign guarantee. The speculation also hit currencies, even though analysts said there was no fresh development to trigger the sudden fright. A spokesman for Sweden's Swedbank, Thomas Backteman, said: "As far as I understand, there is a rumour -- that we haven't managed to confirm yet -- that a state-owned Ukrainian company has not been able to meet payment on a bond. "What are doing now is we are trying to find out more information, principally from our Ukrainian unit, in order to confirm we know exactly what has happened. "It is naturally anything but positive if this proves to be true. But this is not something that means that we feel any great concern that this would significantly worsen the quality of our credit portfolio," he said. Among the top losers in the European banking sector, Commerzbank lost 3.2 percent, Swedbank was down 2.1 percent, Societe Generale shed 1.9 percent and Raiffeisen International fell 2.8 percent.

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