GREEK BANKERS said yesterday they expected the country’s debt managers to achieve an 80 per cent participation rate in a €135 billion debt swap and rollover included in the country’s second international bailout package.

The deadline passed yesterday for banks and other large investors in Greek government debt to take part in the so-called private sector involvement, which involves them taking losses of about 21 per cent on their bonds maturing by 2020.

Although Greece has threatened to withdraw the deal unless it gets a 90 per cent participation by investors, an 80 per cent rate would be high enough for the government to go ahead, according to analysts. “The current estimate is that 75 per cent of investors have signed up already and we’re confident it will reach 80 per cent,” one banker said.

Another said: “Two Greek state-controlled banks with sizeable bondholdings have not yet made clear what they’ll do, but it’s unlikely they will stay out.”

Officials made clear there would be room for further participation before the deal is executed in mid-October, but there would be no announcement of levels of investors signing up.

“The five points that are currently missing can be covered one way or another by investors within Greece,” another banker said.

“The feedback is fairly strong, as you can imagine, because it is a good deal for investors,” said one person close to the deal. “In fact, it would be hard to have written a better script in the last few weeks. It has kind of been the perfect storm.”

The deadline to participate in the debt swap came as Greece struggles to meet conditions set by international lenders for disbursing the next €8 billion tranche of its first bailout loan.

Fiscal targets have been missed and structural reforms are lagging months behind schedule. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)