Debt buyback idea gains ground in Greek bailout: source
BRUSSELS | Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:44am EDT
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A buyback of Greek debt is the only form of private sector involvement in the second Greek bailout that has a chance of not triggering a downgrade to a selective default rating of Greek debt, a
euro zone source said.
Euro zone sources close to talks on Thursday on the second Greek bailout said the buyback idea was one of the main options now under consideration.
"On all of the other options so far, the verdict is very clear -- it will lead to selective default, while for the debt buyback -- it is not so sure," one euro zone official said.
"It appears that there is way to organize the buyback that would not lead to a selective default and obviously, if that is the case, that is the way of involving the private sector, which we should support," the source said.
"The fact that the ECB has done it openly for months and nobody has raised the question of selective default shows it is possible to do this kind of operation without triggering a selective default," the source said.
The ECB has bought bonds of
Greece, Ireland and Portugal on the secondary market to put a floor under the prices of those bonds.
Asked how such a buyback could be organized, the official, who asked not to be identified, said:
"We will have a little bit of time to organize it -- it would be structured in such a way that we would get the expected results in terms of involvement of investors and at the same time it would not destabilize
markets," the source said.
"We have a fairly good idea about the amounts of Greek
bonds outstanding in the private sector and the market value we would add a little premium to that. If you do that you can get a fairly substantial amount," the official said.
Asked if such an operation could reduce Greek debt by about a third, the source said:
"One third of the debt would be a little bit ambitious."
The source said the German idea of investors swapping their Greek bonds for paper with longer maturity was also one of the mainstream options, but that it was certain that would trigger a downgrade to a selective default rating.
Euro zone sources said euro zone leaders meeting on Thursday were likely to endorse more flexibility for the operations of the European Financial Stability Facility, the EFSF.
"There is a quite substantial chance for an agreement on enhanced EFSF flexibility," the source said.
"Flexible credit lines or a precautionary arrangement -- I think there is a fair agreement on that, not yet unanimity, but within a context of a more general package it should be possible to find agreement on that," the source said.
"EFSF bond purchases on the secondary market is one major tricky issue. From there, the debate goes over to the more general private sector involvement debate which on secondary markets is basically debt buybacks," the source said.
On the French banks' idea of debt rollover, the source said:
"The stock of the French banks' idea has gone down a little bit because it would trigger a downgrade and it was fairly generous to the banks -- as you should expect from an idea of the banks."
The source said EFSF lending rates, now at funding cost plus 200 or 300 basis points, depending on the maturity of the loans, could be lowered to funding cost plus a much smaller margin.
"Maybe we could the reduce the rates to the balance of payments facility benchmark, but add a little spread maybe, maybe 50 basis points -- but this is a wild guess," the source said.
The balance of payments facility is a European Union fund of 50 billion euros which provides emergency loans at funding cost to non-euro zone members of the European Union.
"Maybe the balance of payments rate plus a little bit in a favorable scenario," the source said.
The new EFSF rate would apply to all euro zone countries involved in EFSF programs --
Ireland, Portugal as well as Greece, when it gets EFSF funding under the second bailout.