http://www.ifre.com/greece-pays-out-on-yen-bond/21016921.article
Greece honoured coupon payments on a bond last week for the first time since completing its €199bn debt swap on April 25, lifting the hopes of those holding outstanding foreign-law bonds that they may yet be repaid in full.
Two sources told IFR that the Greek Public Debt Management Agency on May 8 had met in full a ¥900m (US$11.3m) coupon payment on the country’s ¥40bn of 4.5% bonds maturing on November 8 2016. The PDMA declined to comment.
The Greek debt swap – through the so-called private-sector involvement programme – was split into two parts. All private holders of Greek-law-governed bonds, which had a €152bn nominal value, voted in aggregate to approve the deal. This imposed the plan on any holdouts through retroactive collective action clauses.
However, investors holding 36 foreign-law bond issues needed to approve the exchange on an issue-by-issue basis. In the case of 19 such issues, with a cumulative nominal value of €6.5bn and including the November 2016 yen bonds, that didn’t happen.
Athens’ next test will come on May 15 when a €450m floating-rate note issue matures. If this foreign-law issue is redeemed in full, Greece may incur the wrath of investors that accepted the debt swap, under which they exchanged their paper for securities at 46.5% of their old bonds’ par value.
But if Greece fails to pay in full the €450m due, then it will be the first time it has actually defaulted on a payment in this current crisis (it last defaulted in 1948). Its decision “will indicate what Greece’s tack will be”, said a sovereign restructuring expert. “Bondholders can’t do anything until the issuer doesn’t pay.”
When setting April 25 as the final settlement date of its exchange, Greece said: “Holders of bonds that decline to participate will be invited in due course to consider arrangements that produce debt relief equivalent to the PSI terms.”
However, it warned that unlike the original offer, it would “not have access to EFSF financing to cover a portion of the consideration”. Some 15% of debt swap participants’ old paper by value was exchanged under the April 25 deal for one-year and two-year EFSF bonds.
Elliott Associates is believed to hold a significant portion of the €450m FRNs. A spokesman declined to comment.
The following week Greece also has to pay €6.6bn of zero-coupon notes, mainly to domestic banks, and €3.3bn of bonds held by the European Central Bank. Both fall due on Friday May 18.
One banking source said: “The coupon payment surprised me, but does it really matter? The special treatment given to the ECB is what really hacked off investors.”
and......
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/greece-virtually-out-cash-one-day-critical-bond-maturity
Greece Virtually Out Of Cash One Day Before Critical Bond Maturity
Curious why the topic of tomorrow's €430 million non-Greek law bond maturity payment (which we first pointed out as a D-Day type of cash outflow for the Greek people) is particularly touchy? Simple: if Greece makes the payment it will see its already in the red cash balance drop by another 30% to a sub redline €1 billion. Which would mean the country will likely not pass go and go straight into looting mode once the people realize that some evil, evil hedge fund hold outs (who are doing precisely what they are contractually entitled to, and what we saidback in January would be the event that breaks the bank, i.e., holding out) have been paid in full despite the Greek restructuring, while there is no money to pay anything else... Because as Bloomberg points out, "the level of funds in Greece’s state coffers has fallen below 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion), Imerisia reported, citing “reliable information.” If the state doesn’t receive predicted revenue for the rest of this month, it will find it difficult to pay for social services, pensions and public-sector wages, the newspaper said." Translation: when the money runs out, it's game over. But it will also be game over if and when Greece either does not want to or does not have the cash to pay tomorrow.
and....greece running out of money quicker than previously understood ?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/must-see-greece-explained-one-picture
Must See: Greece Explained In One Picture
We were going to do a caption contest out of this image, but unfortunately this is not funny. It is tragic. Many people will lose all their money, savings, livelihood, and more because of this...
What is it? It is a picture taken at the Athens ministry of finance.
It is part of a full documentary (go to 24 minutes in for the lack of money shot) released a few days ago by German TV station ZDF called The Greek Lie. It is self-explanatory, and shows where 2 years of bailout funds went, or rather didn't, and why 2 years to the day after the first bailout, not only is Greece not fixed, but is days away from leaving the Eurozone, but at a cost to taxpayers of nearly half a trillion.
We urge anyone, even non-German speakers, to set aside 45 minutes and view the clip below. It is unsettling at best.
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