Troubled Greek jewelry maker Folli Follie has asked for protection from creditors in order to finalise a restructuring plan, it said in a statement on Thursday. “The application for the granting of protective measures was submitted in order to secure the time frame needed to finalise the terms of the company’s restructuring plan,” it said. Securing interim protection would mitigate the risk of a large number of job losses in Greece and abroad, Follie said, adding it had “strong support of over 50 percent of its unsecured creditors,” Reuters reported.
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Greece’s central bank is working on a plan to help banks cut their bad debts in half, the latest effort to restore trust in the country’s financial system, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Under the proposal, Greek lenders would transfer about half of their deferred tax claims to a special purpose vehicle, which would then sell bonds and use the proceeds to buy some 42 billion euros ($47 billion) of bad loans from the lenders, according to the people. They asked not to be identified because the plan hasn’t been finalized yet, Bloomberg News reported.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, one of the world’s largest traders of shipping fuel, has filed for bankruptcy protection in New York, allowing the company to undergo a restructuring with the help of rival trader Mercuria as a precursor to putting itself up for sale, the Financial Times reported. The move into Chapter 11 follows the confirmation last week of a write-off of $200m of expected payments that Aegean said “lacked economic substance”, adding that another $100m may have been “misappropriated through fraudulent activities”.
The EU is a bully. The EU is inflexible and unjust. Our proud nation must no longer submit to the diktats of Brussels and its accomplices. These complaints of Brexiters in the UK resemble the indignation of some Greeks about their nation’s treatment during the eurozone’s sovereign debt and financial sector crises, the Financial Times reported in a commentary. The British government and people, still unable to settle on a definition of Brexit, can learn from Greece’s long, painful struggle. Some lessons offer grounds for hope.
Greece’s central bank governor has blamed Italy’s market turmoil for a drop in the share prices of Greek banks, saying that the falls “are not related to the soundness of Greek banks”. Italian government bonds have seen a fresh sell-off in recent days, as investors mull the growing likelihood that Rome will face-off against Brussels over a budget-busting spending plan, the Financial Times reported. In the past two weeks the yield on 10-year Italian debt has risen by 80 basis points, to hit 3.712 per cent — its highest level since early 2014.
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Burdened by the highest ratio of bad loans in Europe, Greek banks have no shortage of challenges. And that was before Greece -- the continent’s most indebted state -- decided to end its bailout program in August without requesting a follow-up lifeline backed by European creditors, Bloomberg News reported. If doubts about the state of their balance sheets aren’t addressed, concerns about the fate of Greek banks could spiral out of control.
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Some of Greece’s biggest banks suffered steep share price falls on Wednesday as investors worried they may not have enough capital to meet fresh targets on reducing their large portfolios of bad debts, the Financial Times reported. Shares in Piraeus Bank, the country’s largest lender by assets, dropped more than 20 per cent, cutting its market capitalisation to less than €600m. The bank responded by trying to reassure investors that its plan to boost capital by issuing €500m of subordinated bonds was still on track.
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Greece wants to repay loans owed to its lenders from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund before they are due in a bid to cut its debt servicing costs, its finance minister said on Tuesday. Greece, whose public debt amounts to 180 percent of its gross domestic product, has received loans totalling about 280 billion euros under three international bailouts since 2010, Reuters reported. The ECB holds about 12 billion euros worth of Greek debt with an average maturity of four years and the IMF about 10 billion euros with an average maturity of three years.
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The Greek government is urging bailout inspectors to drop their insistence that it cuts pension further next year, arguing the country is on target to beat budget targets without doing so, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. In its draft 2019 budget, tabled to parliament Monday, the government said Greece's economy will grow 2.5 percent next year, with debt and unemployment steadily falling too. In the 44-page document , it said the issue of pension cuts would be decided later this year.
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The Greek government is owed so much in tax arrears from households and companies that it could pay off more than half its massive public debts if it collected it all. Unfortunately for the government, that's unlikely to ever happen, the International New York Times reported on an Associated Press story. Data from the Independent Authority for Public Revenue show tax arrears totaled 182.5 billion euros ($214 billion) on Aug. 10, according to a note sent from the agency to parliament last week and seen by The Associated Press Wednesday.
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