Himfr.com Reports Greece is wooing China to buy lots of government bonds

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

Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, has 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 peopl familiar with the issue.


Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs chief operating officer, has made two trips to Athens - last November and this month - to meet George Papandreou,

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 FT.

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

George Papaconstantinou, finance minister, told the FT he would visit China on a road show next month, but "no target is set" for a debt
placement.

China's foreign exchange reserves grew $130bn in the last quarter of 2009 alone. But people close to Safe said China already held a

"significant amount" of Greek debt and was wary of adding to that.

A senior Greek finance ministry official said Athens would welcome Chinese buyers of its bonds. The official declined to specify an amount,

though a figure of €20bn-€25bn was raised in talks with Goldman Sachs.

A €5bn syndicated loan issue by Greece this week attracted bids worth more than €20bn, but Greece continues to face pressure in financial

markets.

Goldman Sachs mooted the sale of equity in NBG to Bank of China, the country's third-largest commercial lender by assets, and made a similar

proposal to China Investment Corp, China's sovereign wealth fund, according to officials.

Chinese officials said CIC was not interested and that regulators would not let BoC make such a risky investment. Goldman Sachs and CIC

declined to comment. A Bank of China spokesman said: "I haven't heard anything about it."

NBG is, in effect, state-controlled through minority stakes held by pension funds, state entities and the Orthodox church of Greece.

Apostolos Tamvakakis, chief executive of NBG, told the FT he knew nothing about the deal. But analysts in Athens said the appointment this month of Vassilis Constantacopoulos, a shipowner, as a non-executive director of NBG suggested a deal could be considered later.

I am a professional editor from http://www.himfr.com/, and my work is to promote a free online trade platform.
http://www.himfr.com/ contain a great deal of information about ignition system simulator,Mariner Bathware Presley Toilet,high twist yarn, welcome to visit!