LONDON, April 23 (IFR) - Reports are floating around the Street again about how
Europe might actually set about restructuring its holdings of Greek debt.
Supposedly the European Central Bank is considering transferring its Greek
assets to theEuropean Stability Mechanism. As RBS suggests, this would be a
"game changer" as it would allow "the ECB to be excluded from OSI", as well as
greatly ease the sovereign's debt profile. With respect to the latter the talk
would, as varying ideas forOSI have previously floated, extend maturities
and/or cut coupons. An added bonus from RBS' perspective is that it would also
in theory allow for Greek bonds to potentially be lifted as part of the ECB's
Public Sector Purchase Program given thatcurrent ECB exposure would be
eliminated or at least greatly reduced.
Obviously, to the extent these reports have any validity, they would be very
good news for Greek bonds. Indeed, one might even structure a trade lifting
Greece against selling ESMpaper given a presumption the latter will need to
increase its funding in order to acquire the ECB's holdings. In effect, an
ESM-mandated restructuring of official Greek holdings would in effect at least
partly extend the former's credit to thelatter, at least as long as any
associated politics remain benevolent. But this is where things get really
interesting given the ESM is eligible for the ECB's PSPP. Hence extra supply is
not necessarily much of an issue.
Before jumping on to thistrade, however, we firstly need more substantiation
that Europe really is looking at transferring the ECB's holdings of Greek bonds
to the ESM. Indeed, this idea has been floating around for some time, even for
years. So it's not clear how thecurrent chatter differs, or even if it's
really just the same old talk getting recycled again. Critically, we would also
still need to see evidence that Greece will undertake the meaningful structural
and fiscal reforms it has been asked to. Thiswill of course be no easy task
given the SYRIZA government's opposition to many of these reforms, as well as
the generally fragmented political scene within Athens. We would not, however,
count out such acceptance given the Greek electorate willlikely be able to
sense a good deal should it arrive, or the political pressure which has been
starting to mount on the SYRIZA government given its erstwhile incoherent
appearance and increasingly desperate grab for funds.
Greek bonds are putting inanother strong performance again, suggesting some
sort of good news is afoot. Two-year spreads are down another 100 bps to Schatz
on Tradeweb, with yields down to a mid-market just under 26%. Prices across the
entire Greek strip are up about a pointor just over a point.
[email protected] /JR
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14:40-23/04