Greece to target US investors with bond - papers

Greece will this month launch a multibillion-dollar bond in the US, selling itself for the first time as an emerging market country as demand for its debt dwindles in Europe.

Morgan Stanley could handle the deal, after Goldman Sachs' plans to sell Greek bonds to US and Asian investors this year fell through amid rumours the Chinese had shunned Athens' debt, the Financial Times reports.

Greece's finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, will lead promotions in the US "after April 20" but he will no longer follow initial plans to travel on to Asia, one official said.

Greece is looking for $5bn to $10bn from US investors to help cover its May borrowing requirement of about €10bn to roll over maturing debt and meet interest payments.
The issuance is Greece's first in the US in nearly two years.

Athens is deliberately targeting emerging market investors as demand has dropped markedly on successive bond deals in Europe.

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GREEK BANKS are being hit by a wave of redemptions as the country's most wealthy citizens and corporations seek ‘safer' offshore or international financial institutions for their assets, the Telegraph reports.

Wealthy Greeks and companies have been clamouring to move their cash deposits to banks such as HSBC or France's Société Générale, which operate large branches in the country.

The banks are among those to have received several billion euros of new money in recent weeks.

HSBC's private banking in the country is understood to have been flooded with business, while the local operations of several other major international banks have already seen large inflows of money. A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment.

Eurozone countries are still at loggerheads on a Greek bail-out, with Germany believed to be in conflict with other countries in the single currency over how much interest to charge on the emergency loans package. Germany wants interest rates of 6% to 6.5%, with other countries willing to accept 4% to 4.5% interest.

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