Greece's Rating Cut Two Levels to BB- by S&P on Debt-Restructuring Concern
By Marcus Bensasson - Mar 29, 2011 3:51 PM GMT+0200 Tue Mar 29 13:51:42 GMT 2011
Greece’s credit rating was cut two steps by Standard and Poor’s on concern the country may be required to restructure its debt and bondholders may lose out.
The rating was lowered to BB- from BB+ by S&P, according to a statement today. The outlook remains negative, according to the statement.
A meeting of EU leaders in Brussels on March 25 affirmed a decision earlier this month to ease the terms of 110 billion- euro ($155 billion) in emergency loans granted to Greece last year in return for a program of budget cuts. The leaders also agreed that repayment of loans granted through the European
Stability Mechanism, the region’s permanent debt crisis mechanism from 2013, would take a priority in the event of a debt restructuring. S&P said on March 15 that the agreement would be “detrimental” to existing bondholders.
The March 25 statement “confirms our previously published expectations that sovereign-debt restructuring is a potential pre-condition to borrowing from the ESM,” according to S&P. The rating company also cited concerns that senior unsecured government debt will be subordinated to ESM loans.
Certo che se queste saranno le decisioni a giugno, siamo veramente senza speranza, in quanto il problema della Grecia è che non è in condizione di rollare.