Goldman denies it made Greek bank sales pitch to China

[provost]

saw this: viewtopic.php?p=347805#p347805

The greeks are over there now with the begging bowl.

then I googled and found this:
reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q2RB20100127

Goldman denies made Greek bank sales pitch to China
LONDON - Wed Jan 27, 2010 7:56am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs denied a media report it had been mooting the sale of equity in National Bank of Greece to Chinese banks as debt-ridden Greece struggles to fix its public finances.

The Financial Times on Wednesday reported Goldman Sachs had been mooting the sale of equity in NBG, Greece’s largest lender to Bank of China or to the China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign wealth fund.

GS said it was not involved in any such deal.

The FT also said GS had been promoting a Greek bond sale to China and to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages China’s foreign exchange reserves, as Greece hoped to sell 25 billion euros ($35.15 billion) of bonds.

A source close to the bank said that while it was keen to do further business with Greece, there was no project underway to place debt specifically with Chinese investors.

Goldman Sachs declined to comment on whether it was specifically targeting Chinese investors.

[boomshackala]

trust them lads to up to their bollix in it

[provost]

found the FT article here:
ft.com/cms/s/0/79adf352-0ae3 … abdc0.html

Athens hopes that Beijing will buy €25bn in government debt
By Kerin Hope in Athens and Jamil Anderlini in Beijing
Published: January 27 2010 02:00 | Last updated: January 27 2010 02:00

Greece is wooing China to buy up to €25bn of government bonds, a move that underlines Beijing’s increasing financial power, as Athens struggles to fund soaring public debt.

Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, had been promoting a Greek bond sale to Beijing and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe), which manages China’s $2,400bn foreign exchange reserves, said people familiar with the issue.

Gary Cohn, Goldman’s chief operating officer, has made two trips to Athens to meet George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, and senior officials.
**
Beijing has not agreed to such a purchase.** Meanwhile, Athens has rejected a suggestion that a Chinese bank should acquire a strategic stake in National Bank of Greece, the country’s flagship commercial lender, according to officials contacted by the Financial Times.

But a more modest deal of about €5bn-€10bn ($7bn-$14bn) appeared possible after Mr Cohn’s second trip to Athens this month, officials said yesterday.

possible consequences:
online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … lenews_wsj

Concerns About Greece Boost Treasurys
By KELLY NOLAN * JANUARY 27, 2010, 10:13 A.M. ET

NEW YORK—U.S. Treasury prices ticked higher Wednesday morning after new-home sales unexpectedly fell 7.6% in December.

Treasurys hit session highs in early trade as concerns about Greece’s ability to finance its budget shortfall resurfaced. Greek officials denied the country was looking to sell a large debt offering to Chinese investors.

A senior Greek official told Dow Jones Newswires that early feedback showed weak Asian demand, especially from China, for Greek debt. Greece must finance about $54 billion in debt this year to cover its widening budget deficit.

reuters.com/article/idUSN201 … sDollarRpt

FOREX-Euro tumbles on Greek woes; China hurts risk appetite
Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:15pm EST - By Steven C. Johnson

• Euro at 5-mth low vs dlr; breaks thru 200-day moving avg
• Greek woes hurt euro; U.S. senate election helps dollar
• China lending curbs weighs on commodity currencies (Adds details, comment updates prices, changes byline)

NEW YORK, Jan 20 (Reuters) - The euro fell to a five-month low against the dollar on Wednesday amid worries about Greece’s ability to finance its deficit, while fear that China is trying to slow bank lending dulled demand for commodity currencies.

Analysts said the dollar also rose on hopes that the Republican upset victory for the vacant U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts will force Congress to rein in the fiscal deficit. For details, see[ID:nN18159712]

“The momentum clearly favors the dollar right now, and the market seems willing to latch onto any reason to buy it,” said Matthew Strauss, senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

He said reports that Chinese banks were told to curb lending weighed on commodity currencies such as the Australian dollar and boosted the greenback. Tighter policy may slow China’s recovery and cut demand for commodities, analysts said.

[Daniel_Plainview]

you guys see today’s spread on Greek debt; new highs vs german bunds; about 3.2% versus 6.7%
YIKES!

[yoganmahew]

you guys see today’s spread on Greek debt; new highs vs german bunds; about 3.2% versus 6.7%
YIKES!

ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010/01 … nd-yields/

Rapid developments for Hellenic Republic bonds on Wednesday, as Greece denied an FT report that it had mandated Goldman Sachs to sell bonds to China. Yields on the benchmark 10-year jumped 18bps to 6.43 per cent.

Has a picture too…

[Daniel_Plainview]

worse than that Yogan (6.43%) last time I looked (nearer 6.7%), but my terminal’s having a little hissy fit right now.
markets feel very veeeeeery nervous right now, crash possible.

[yoganmahew]

worse than that Yogan (6.43%) last time I looked (nearer 6.7%), but my terminal’s having a little hissy fit right now.
markets feel very veeeeeery nervous right now, crash possible.

Funny that when someone comes out and denies that the giant squid is ‘helping’ them all hell breaks loose. It’s almost like mafia fire insurance…

[yoganmahew]

1-month t-bills in the US gone negative?

[2Pack]

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … Lltg&pos=5

668np and 350 spread over the Bund

Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) – Greece’s new 8 billion euros ($11 billion) of five-year bonds tumbled in the first day of trading, pushing the cost of insuring the government’s debt from default to a record.

The spread on the notes, due August 2015, widened as much as 35 basis points to 385 over the benchmark mid-swap rate, according to Markit Group Ltd. iBoxx prices on Bloomberg. Credit-default swaps protecting against losses on Greece for five years soared 48 basis points to 373, according to CMA DataVision.

“Technically, the term is that it’s getting smacked,” said Gary Jenkins, head of credit strategy at Evolution Securities Ltd. in London. “Clearly what’s happening is very negative and could lead to a vicious circle.”

Spyros Papanicolaou, head of the Greek debt agency, said yesterday he expected the spread on the bonds to tighten because the country has been “misjudged.” The European Commission said today that Greece hasn’t done enough to rein in its deficit that reached 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009.

One-year credit-default swaps on Greek debt jumped 43 basis points to 481, CMA prices show. They rose above the cost of five-year swaps for the first time Jan. 13, inverting the so- called yield curve and signaling investors perceive an increased risk of default.

“Unless this bond stabilizes and general debt stabilizes, you have to ask the question: Who’s going to lend money to them next time and at what price?” Jenkins said.

Concern that Greece will struggle fund its deficit spread to other countries, with default swaps on Spain rising 17 basis points to 127, Portugal climbing 18.5 to 149 and Italy up 10 basis points at 114, CMA prices show.

The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments from Germany to Greece rose 9.25 basis points to a record 87.25, according to London-based CMA. That means it costs $87,250 a year to insure against losses on $10 million of debt for five years.

The yield on the Greek 10-year bond rose 44 basis points to 6.68 percent as of 4:35 p.m. in Athens, with the difference in yield, or spread, against German bunds increasing by 46 basis points to 350 basis points, the widest since December 1998.

[yoganmahew]

No mention of Ireland moving then? Plan A seems to be working…

[Gilroy]

An interesting article on Greece’s bond issuance at The Economist.

For less sanguine investors, the idea of going cap in hand to China smacked of desperation. Some may have recalled the trek that Bear Stearns made to China in the months before the bank imploded.

economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15394124

A pledge to follow Ireland’s example in making substantial cuts to public-sector wages may now be necessary to ensure Greece can fund itself at reasonable cost

[2Pack]

Bund spread went from 350bp yesterday to 395bp today

Meanwhile the presidente was saying ‘no surrender’ in Davos.

bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … Ekkxlzg_Bs

[boomshackala]

Greece, Portugal Debt Concerns Start to Infect Companies, Banks
bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= … Xy50afcjuo