Ukraine reconstruction bank guided by BlackRock, JPMorgan ready for action this year -BlackRock

By Victoria Waldersee, Megan Davies and Stefania Spezzati

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 16 (Reuters) - A Ukraine reconstruction bank being set up by Kyiv with help from BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase should be ready to take action within the year, BlackRock Vice-Chairman Philipp Hildebrand told Reuters at an interview in Davos.

The asset manager was assisting in discussions to seek sovereign money from development banks or principal donor countries to mitigate risk for private investments, Hildebrand, a member of the company's Global Executive Committee, said.

Kyiv engaged BlackRock and JPMorgan last year to help set up a fund to raise public capital that could attract private investment for Ukraine's reconstruction, estimated to cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

"We want to be ready to deploy with at least soft commitments from donor countries," Hildebrand said, adding risk would need to be brought down to OECD levels for BlackRock assets - consisting of pension funds - to be mobilised.

"That money cannot be invested in very high risk enterprises," he said. (Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Megan Davies and Stefania Spezzati; Editing by Alexander Smith)