In Brief
Greek 5-year bond easily absorbed Greece’s reopening of a five-year bond was easily absorbed yesterday, with the auction oversubscribed 4.53 times, compared with 3.19 times at its previous sale in June, helped by its high yield, traders said. Greece sold 1.4 billion euros ($2.05 billion) of the bond, with the weighted average yield at 4.80 percent versus 5.13 percent at a June 10 auction.«Greek bond spreads compared to German Bunds have widened with investors finding today’s auction relatively attractive, reflected by the high cover ratio,» said an Athens-based bond trader at a major Greek bank who declined to be named.Greek bonds are considered peripheral eurozone assets and have historically been one of the highest yielders in the eurozone. The riskier a bond is seen as being against German Bunds, the higher the yield. Intra-eurozone government bond yield spreads recently hit their widest levels since the bloc’s inception, making borrowing increasingly costly for governments. (Reuters) Turkey gives green light for sale of 2 power grids ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s High Board of Privatization approved the sale of two power grids to foreign-Turkish partnerships, paving the way for the grids to be handed over to new owners, the official government gazette said yesterday. Sabanci Holding and Austria’s Verbund made the top bid of $1.225 billion for the power grid in the Ankara region last July. Czech power firm CEZ and Turkish Akenerji clinched the Sakarya distribution grid in northwest Turkey for $600 million in a second tender. The sales are part of a major privatization program that has brought in much-needed foreign revenues to rein in the country’s bloated current account deficit. Approval from the High Board of Privatization is the final step before the grids can be handed over by the state. Telecom license Romanian regulators gave former state telephone monopoly Romtelecom SA a 10-year license for the country’s sixth wireless broadband network after rejecting protests by other bidders. Regulators «analyzed and rejected as unfounded the objections by other bidders,» the Bucharest-based Autoritatea Nationala de Reglementare in Comunicatii said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Romtelecom beat out two other groups of bidders, including Saudi Oger Ltd, the Riyadh-based construction, telecoms and utility company and postal monopoly Compania Nationala Posta Romana SA in bidding for the license on September 9. The other bidders argued that the fee of 1.07 million euros ($1.57 million) to be paid by Romtelecom for the license was too low. Romtelecom, which provides fixed-line and cellular phone services in the country of 22 million, is 54 percent-owned by Greece’s Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE). (Bloomberg) Pinch felt Turkish banks are starting to feel the effects of a tightening global credit market and will find it difficult to get long-term credit from abroad, Is Bank CEO Ersin Ozince said yesterday. «Liquidity is tightening. It will be nearly impossible for the Turkish banking sector to find long-term credit from abroad,» Ozince told CNBC-e in an interview. Is Bank is Turkey’s largest private bank by assets. Turkish banks are considered better placed than many European and US rivals because of their strong balance sheets and limited foreign exposure. (Reuters)
