Greece to reopen 10 year-bond – debt agency

Greece on Tuesday, September 1, said it would reopen a 10-year bond issued in June to shore up its coffers after a costly coronavirus lockdown.

Athens initially raised 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion euros) from the operation but it now expects to spend many times that on measures to offset the impact of the global pandemic.

It issued a mandate to Barclays, Citi, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, and Société Générale to act as lead managers for the second round, the state debt agency said in a statement to financial markets.

“The [syndicated] transaction will be launched in the near future, subject to market conditions,” it added.

Earlier this year, Greece had a comfortable cash buffer of 35 billion euros but it has spent some of that to support businesses during a coronavirus lockdown that lasted from March until May.

The government has earmarked 24 billion euros in national and European Union funds to support the economy this year due to the shutdown.

Greece’s economy contracted in the 1st quarter by 0.9% from the same period a year earlier.

And Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned that it will fall into a “deep recession” this year before rebounding in 2021.

Between 2009 and 2018, Greece suffered its worst economic crisis in modern times, and had begun to slowly regain some of the lost ground before it was hit by the impact of coronavirus restrictions. – Rappler.com