Greece needs big bond investors to seal its comeback

As Greece readies for its next foray into international bond markets, it will be hoping to draw more big-name, mainstream asset managers rather than the hedge funds who have been its main clients in recent years.

Since coming off life-support in 2018, Greece has been trying to leave a nine-year debt crisis behind. It applied earlier this month to repay early 3.7 billion euros of high-interest debt it owes the International Monetary Fund, replacing it with cheaper market-based borrowing.

It sold two new bonds in January and March and plans to return to the market by June.

But to maintain market access, Greece will need long-horizon investors such as BlackRock and Amundi. And a major barrier looms here - a credit rating that's deep in junk territory means Greek debt is excluded from major indexes that global asset-management firms use as benchmarks.

There...