Athens has filed a shelf registration with securities regulators in the United States to be able to sell so-called diaspora bonds to retail investors, the head of the country’s debt agency said on March 9.
Diaspora bonds, aimed at Greeks abroad, are part of plans by the debt-ridden country to raise funds before it attempts to return to international bond markets.
“We filed with the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] last night, the ceiling for the programme is $3.0 billion (2.15 billion euros) and we are awaiting approval,” Petros Christodoulou, head of the debt management agency (PDMA), told Reuters. He said there are similar plans to tap Greeks in Australia but there has been no such filing yet.
Approval by the SEC means Greece will be in a position to market these bonds whenever authorities decide. A senior government official said the exact timing or the maturities of the bonds had not been decided. Christodoulou dismissed reports in the Greek media that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had already approved the government’s application to issue a diaspora bond aimed at the Greek-American community in the US. “This isn’t going to happen right now,” he said.
source: REUTERS
