IuteCredit delayed an €18 million payment: Is the company facing liquidity problems?

The interest payment on IuteCredit Finance’s 12% bonds did not reach all investors on time. In financial circles and the media, the delay was portrayed as a lack of cash, a claim the company denies, attributing the delay instead to the international securities settlement system.

IuteCredit Finance S.à r.l., a Luxembourg-based company wholly owned by the Estonian financial group Iute Group, faced delays in June in distributing a payment of around €18 million to holders of its “12% Senior Secured EUR 2025/2030” bonds.

The payment represented the bonds’ semi-annual coupon and was due on June 6, 2026. However, on June 15, nine days after the scheduled date, Iute Group publicly confirmed that the payment had still not been credited to the accounts of all investors. reports Albeu.com.

The €18 million amount is linked to the fact that the 2025/2030 bonds carry an annual interest rate of 12% and, following the expansion of the issue in early June 2026, the total value of outstanding bonds reached €300 million. Interest payments are made every six months, on June 6 and December 6.

Just one day before the coupon payment date, on June 5, Iute announced the completion and listing of an additional €140 million issue, bringing the total bonds in this series to €300 million. The bonds are traded on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on Nasdaq Tallinn.

Iute: The money was transferred; the problem was with the settlement system

In its June 15 announcement, Iute Group categorically denied that the delay was related to a lack of funds. According to the company, around €18 million had been transferred in line with the established procedure, but the payment had not yet reached all bondholders.

The payment process involved BPER Luxembourg SA as paying agent and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL) as Luxembourg’s central securities depository. According to Iute, the problem emerged in subsequent stages of the settlement process through international clearing systems.

The company also stressed that the same payment structure has been used since 2019 and that previous interest and principal payments had been processed without comparable problems.

Two days later, on June 17, Iute issued a further clarification, stating that a “significant portion” of the payment had already been credited to investors. In that communication, too, the company insisted that it had no liquidity problems and that the funds had been transferred on time to the designated account.

Rising financing costs, falling profit

However, Iute Group’s latest financial data show that the group is facing rising financing costs.

In results published on August 27 for the first half of 2026, Iute reported total revenue of €66.1 million, up 11.1% compared with a year earlier, while adjusted EBITDA rose 26.3% to €30.6 million.

On the other hand, reported net profit fell by 38.2%, from €6.7 million to €4.1 million. The company itself attributes this decline, among other factors, to higher financing costs following bond issuances and increased deposits. The net interest margin declined from 22.9% to 18.6%.

Another indicator that merits attention is the interest coverage ratio, or ICR, which stood at 1.50 times at the end of the first half, exactly at the minimum 1.50x level required under the Eurobond terms. Meanwhile, the capitalization ratio was 22.6%, above the required minimum of 15%. The company said both financial bond covenants had been met. /albeu.com/