Greece secures high participation in bond swap
reece has cleared a major hurdle in its race to avoid imminent bankruptcy after persuading the vast majority of its private creditors to slash the value of their Greek bond holdings, a move that should pave the way for the country’s second massive international bailout.
Following weeks of intense discussions, Greece’s Finance Ministry said Friday that 85.8 percent of private investors holding its Greek-law bonds had signed up to the deal, and that it aimed to use legislation forcing those creditors still holding out of the deal to participate. After accounting for bonds that are governed by foreign laws, that proportion drops to 83.5 percent.
Venizelos said he would recommend the activation of the legislation, known as “collective action clauses” to Parliament.
“A window of opportunity is opening” with the success of the deal to massively reduce the country’s debt by euro105 billion, or about 50 percentage points of gross domestic product, he said.