Problems with overdue debt to the public sector might keep the Greek government from promoting securitized future revenues as part of its soon-to-be launched privatization and state property management program.
According to a report in Athens News, the Greek government is entering the final stage of launching its privatization and state property management program. An inter-ministerial privatizations commission meeting on Wednesday will appoint the first consultants after examining the program's framework.
The report said that Finance Minister Yiorgos Papakonstantinou stated that a draft plan will be ready in the next few weeks, which will be discussed with the troika and approved by the cabinet, while the ministry will also present it to Parliament.
The ministry expects to have completed the appointment of privatization consultants by the end of June. Greek structured finance deals continue to feel the stress of the country's sovereign debt crisis.
Last week Moody's Investors Service downgraded the Greek sovereign rating to 'B1' from 'Ba1' and said it did not expect Greek structured finance ratings to retain or achieve ratings of 'A3' or higher.
According to the rating agency, despite the available structural protections that are in place in Greek transactions, the risk of high severity events, such as a severe macroeconomic decline and a deterioration in sovereign or local bank's creditworthiness, would have significant effects on the deals.
"There are an increasing amount of non-performance related downgrades of transactions, due to the continuing economic and sovereign stress," Barclays Capital analysts explained. "This will affect investors in multiple ways, as downgrades could force investors restricted by rating mandates to sell down these bonds, and also cause these bonds to no longer be eligible as repo collateral with the central banks, to simply the additional cost of holding these investments in respect of the capital cost."
