Greek companies draw on Samaras confidence with return to bonds


By Abigail Moses

A recovery in the nation that set off the euro region’s debt crisis is allowing Greece’s largest electricity company to return to the bond market for the first time since 2000.

Public Power Corp SA is raising 500 million euros ($690 million) to refinance debt as Greek gaming system developer Intralot SA markets 250 million euros of notes, people familiar with the deals said. The two Athens-based issuers are the first non-financial Greek companies to sell debt in Europe this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Confidence is returning to Greece after the government ended a four-year exile from international markets on April 10, issuing 3 billion euros of bonds in a sale that saw demand exceed supply by almost seven times, according to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. The economy is set to grow 0.6 percent this year, officials said on Wednesday, the first expansion in seven years.

“Greece was the poster child for the sovereign crisis and it’s back,” said Juan Esteban Valencia, a strategist at Societe Generale SA in Paris. “It’s a vote of confidence in the work that’s been done there, but mostly, it’s the fact that people are really desperate to look for yield.”

PPC is selling three- and five-year bonds that may be priced to yield as much as 5 percent and 5.75 percent, while Intralot is selling seven-year notes to yield 6.125 percent. The gaming company last issued bonds in the currency in August, when it sold five-year securities paying a coupon of 9.75 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Greece set off Europe’s debt crisis in 2009 when the government revealed its budget deficit had swelled to more than five times the region’s permitted limit. That led to two...

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