Greece targets bond sale before Euro elections, minister says

By Antonis Galanopoulos, Marcus Bensasson & Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece will probably sell bonds for the first time in four years before May as the nation seeks to rebuild its finances following an international bailout, Infrastructure Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis said.

The debt sale will be part of “a series” of positive developments before this May’s European Parliament elections, Chrysochoidis, 58, said in an interview in Athens on Monday. “We will get the next loan tranche, the country will return to markets, with a slightly high interest rate, which will fall after, and Greece won’t remain in this drama of quarterly troika reviews.”

Greek government bonds have delivered the highest return among 25 developed markets tracked by Bloomberg in the past year as the country that triggered the European debt crisis wins back investors. Talks between the so-called troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund ended in the early hours of this morning without agreement on the latest economic adjustment program.

With the ECB’s government-debt assurances and record low benchmark interest rates fueling a rally in sovereign bonds, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government has prioritized tapping markets this year. “Ideally, we’d like to have no new loans from our European partners,” Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said Jan. 9.

Greece’s 10-year benchmark yield dropped to a four-year low of 6.65 percent earlier this month from 8.61 percent at end-January and a high of 37.1 percent in March 2012.

The outcome of the European elections won’t affect political stability in Greece, where Samaras’s coalition government is clinging to a three-seat majority in the 300-seat...