Fitch Ratings has downgraded Greece's Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'RD' ('Restricted Default') from 'C' following today's confirmation from the Greek government and eurozone officials that the exchange of Greek government bonds will proceed.
Fitch Ratings has downgraded
Greece
's
Long-term foreign and local currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'RD'
('Restricted Default') from 'C' following today's confirmation from the Greek
government and eurozone officials that the exchange of Greek government bonds
will proceed.
The downgrade to 'RD' reflects Fitch's previous commentary that the exchange
would constitute a sovereign default event under the agency's distressed debt
exchange (DDE) rating criteria, and follows the downgrade of Greece to 'C' from
'CCC' on 22 February.
Greece
's
Short-term foreign currency IDR remains unchanged at 'C'. The euro area Country
Ceiling, which is applicable to all euro area member states, also remains
unchanged at 'AAA.'
Under the exchange, each EUR100 face value amount of Greek government bonds
will be exchanged for new bonds with a face value of EUR31.5 and EUR15 of EFSF
('AAA') notes. Bondholders will also receive a notional EUR31.5 of Greek
GDP-linked securities. The implied loss relative to the original terms and
conditions of the bonds implied by the exchange is estimated by market
participants to be approximately 74%.
Fitch has also downgraded the issue ratings of the tendered securities under
the Greek-law bondholder exchange to 'D' from 'C', where they will remain for
as long as the sovereign is rated 'RD' after which the ratings will be
withdrawn. The foreign-law bond exchange offer does not close until 23 March and
the issue ratings on these securities will therefore remain at 'C' until
exchanged on the 11 April, after which they will be rated 'D' and the ratings
subsequently withdrawn. The issue ratings of securities not eligible for the
bond exchange remain unchanged.
The settlement date for Greek-law exchanged bonds - when new Greek government
bonds will be issued - is Monday 12 March. Following completion of the debt
exchange and the issue of new securities, Fitch will raise
Greece
's IDR
out of 'RD' and assign ratings to the new securities consistent with the
agency's forward-looking assessment of
Greece
's
credit profile following the distressed debt exchange. The post- exchange IDR
and securities ratings are likely to be low speculative grade.
These actions are in line with Fitch's statement on 6 June 2011 (see 'Fitch
Outlines Rating Approach to a Sovereign Debt Exchange') and the agency's
Distressed Debt Exchange Criteria (12 August 2011).
Διαβάστε ακόμα
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:58
Τρι, 24 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 19:54
Τετ, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 18:32
Τετ, 18 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 18:27
Τρι, 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024 - 20:01