Investors holding Greek sovereign debt issued under foreign laws and denominated in dollars, euros, Swiss francs and yen said no to a Greek restructuring plan, leaving the country to find another way through its debt maze as it seeks to avoid outright financial collapse.
Bloomberg reported Monday that the bonds, which required a number of separate votes, total approximately $15.3 billion. Holders of those bonds and others, totaling about $26.8 billion, met in 36 separate meetings last week.
The Greek Public Debt Management Office announced Monday that in 20 of those 36 meetings, creditors rejected Greece’s attempt to restructure their holdings, in the amount of $11.5 billion, either by turning down the government’s proposal outright, adjourning the talks or failing to achieve a quorum. The bondholders in the other meetings accepted Greece’s measures.
“The key thing with the international bonds is that holders have to vote bond by bond rather than in aggregate,” Thomas Costerg, European economist at Standard Chartered Bank, was quoted saying. “That makes it easier for investors to block the restructuring and raises the question of what Greece can do now.”