Grécia e Portugal - os dois da vida airada

[Menor_Valia]

Saudações!!

Com ameaças destas desconfio que só vão arranjar investidores para o que não puder ser revertido...

Greek aircraft sale signals step to reform

By Kerin Hope in Athens

The sale of four ageing Airbus A340-300 aircraft for a modest €40m would not usually be considered a landmark privatisation.

Yet for Yannis Stournaras, the new Greek finance minister who signed off on the deal on Sunday night, it could be a critical step towards convincing international lenders that Athens is now serious about implementing structural reforms.

The sale of the aircraft to Apollo Aviation Group, a US-based international leasing company that made the highest of four bids, was announced hours before Mr Stournaras was due to face a grilling on Monday night in Luxembourg by eurozone finance ministers on how Greece intends to get its second €174bn bailout back on track.

For one local consultant, the planes – formerly owned by the Greek state carrier Olympic Airways and parked since 2009 on the tarmac at Athens international airport – were “clear evidence of the reluctance of successive governments to get on with sell-off programmes they supposedly endorsed”.

Political will is no longer an issue, while reviving a flagging €50bn privatisation programme launched two years ago at the behest of international lenders could help drive an economic recovery, Mr Stournaras insists.

“Every euro we earn from the disposal of public assets is one euro less that we would otherwise have to find from fiscal measures that would plunge the country deeper into recession and social crisis,” he told parliament.

Greece is due to raise €19bn in privatisation revenues by 2015 according to the terms of its second bailout; the other €31bn would be raised over the following decade. Greece raised €1.8bn from disposals in 2011.

The current list of sales includes six deals that have reached “a fairly advanced stage” and could, perhaps, be completed this year, raising up to €3bn, according to an official at the Hellenic Asset Development Fund, or TAIPED, the privatisation agency.

Advisers to TAIPED are working on nine other disposals, including OPAP, the profitable state gaming operator, two water utilities, an oil refinery – all already listed on the Athens stock exchange – and packages of state-owned properties. More property assets will be added to the pipeline of deals, Mr Stournaras says.

Costis Hatzidakis, the development and infrastructure minister who oversaw the privatisation of Olympic during an earlier stint as transport minister, wants to add the restructured state railways OSE to the list. OSE has turned profitable since cutting more than 2,000 jobs and splitting into two companies, one operating trains and the other managing rail infrastructure.

“French, Russian, and Romanian rail operators all made enquiries last year,” said an official at Train-OSE, the operating company. “The economy has got worse since then but we’re doing better, so we would expect serious interest if the company is put up for sale.”

Yet plenty of obstacles to fast-track privatisation lie ahead, according to Greek politicians, investment bankers and lawyers.

“‘The climate is difficult, even if the coalition government pulls together successfully,” said one banker. “The big question of whether Greece can remain in the euro may be off the table for a few months, but it still has to be resolved.”

Following last week’s talks with the troika of European Union and International Monetary Fund officials, as many as 72 “prior actions” – legislative and administrative changes – will be needed before the six disposals already underway can be completed, according to Chris Konstas, TAIPED spokesman.

TAIPED’s own management is due for an overhaul, following the resignation of its chairman Ioannis Koukiades, a political appointee, after the June election, says a conservative adviser. He has not yet been replaced. A second board member is expected to stand down because the party that appointed him is no longer represented in parliament.

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition leftwing Syriza party, has already denounced the privatisation programme, threatening street protests if it goes ahead as planned. Such protests would further undermine the investment climate.

Mr Tsipras issued a stern warning to potential investors that a future Syriza government would return these assets to public ownership: “Anyone who dares to exploit the current situation in our country and put their hands on our public property is going to lose their money.”

Um abraço,

JR

[manell]

Se calhar aproveitávamos a boleia e vendíamos 2 submarinos não... ? 

[Johny]

Boas,

Não sei se tiveram oportunidade de ler este artigo:

Petróleo pode ser a arma da vingança grega

Para muitos a Grécia parece uma verdadeira caixa de Pandora. Mas há pelo menos um sector em que se detectam sinais de esperança – o da pesquisa de petróleo e gás natural...

http://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/home.php?template=SHOWNEWS_V2&id=566869

[Incognitus]

Pode ser que tirem algo da coisa, sim, mas por enquanto são apenas esperanças.

[Kin2010]

Acho que a primeira intervenção neste tópico merece ser patriótica:

PORTUGAL NÃO É A GRÉCIA.

De preferência repetido todos os dias.
 

[Menor_Valia]

Saudações!!

A Alemanha já carrega um fardo relativamente pesado às costas... atente-se nas responsabilidades por via das compras de divida soberana grega pelo BCE e que presumem um montante total ~40 mil ME... e eu estimo que a divida portuguesa nas mãos do BCE não deverá andar muito longe dos mesmos valores... 

Um abraço,

JR

[Menor_Valia]

Saudações!!

Também ainda resta saber como o BCE contabiliza a compra daqueles activos no seu balanço (totaliza ~210 mil ME divida soberana dos vários paises em dificuldades)... é que a compra de ~40 mil ME de divida soberana portuguesa pode representar na realidade > 50 mil ME em termos do valor nominal das obrigações...

Um abraço,

JR

[Kin2010]

Isso aí acima já é a Alemanha a queixar-se demais. As perdas da França e Itália nos mesmos itens são só ligeiramente menores. E os EUA, UK, etc também perdem na parte do FMI.

[5555]

Greece, Ireland and Portugal - Three little piggies

Feb 16th 2015, 21:06 by The Economist | LONDON

ON FEBRUARY 16th the Eurogroup, consisting of the euro-area's 19 finance ministers, met to discuss whether they should change the conditions of Greece's bail-out. Unsurprisingly, given that neither the German nor Greek governments were showing any sign of compromise over the weekend, the talks collapsed by the end of the afternoon. Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's finance minister, is strongly opposed to any modifications. So, ironically, are the governments of Ireland and Portugal. Like Greece, the latter two binged on cheap debt before the crisis, suffered banking meltdowns and were forced to endure the austerity that came as a condition of bail-outs of their own. But instead of standing in solidarity with Greece, they are mimicking the stance of its creditors.

It is easy for Ireland and Portugal to be fastidious: their economies have recently started to hum again (see chart). Over the past two years, economic growth has got going, unemployment has being falling and bond yields on their public debt are now lower than before the financial crisis. Indeed, at today's meeting, Portugal's finance minister attempted to repay some of its bail-out loans ahead of schedule.

Greece's agony explained in charts: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/02/daily-chart-6

Although Greece's problems, in terms both of debt and of growth-smothering regulation, were much worse than Ireland or Portugal's, its reforms had been beginning to bear fruit too. Towards the end of last year, GDP started to rise again and unemployment started to fall, bringing a little relief to many impoverished Greeks. But since last month's election was called, in December, macroeconomic indicators have started to head the other way. Government revenues have begun to fall, the trade deficit has begun to rise and unemployment resumed its upward journey. The Greek tragedy about Syriza may well turn out to be that it knocked over the economic apple-cart when it was just about to reap the reward of its people's sacrifices over the last few years.