INVESTMENT VEHICLE:THE FRENCH president plans to call Chinese leader Hu Jintao tomorrow to discuss China contributing to the fund European leaders may set up for its debt-crisis battle, a person familiar with the matter said.
The investment vehicle was one of the options being considered by European leaders at a summit last night to expand the reach of the €440 billion European Financial Stability Facility.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s plea to his Chinese counterpart will come the day before a planned visit to Beijing by Klaus Regling, chief executive officer of the stability fund, to court investors. The fund, set up last year to sell bonds to finance loans for distressed euro nations, has gained the authority to buy sovereign bonds on the secondary and primary markets, offer credit lines to governments and recapitalise banks as the Greece-triggered debt troubles have spread.
The fund said Mr Regling’s visit to China this week is linked to its original debt-issuance role. “It is a normal round of discussion with important buyers of EFSF bonds,” Christof Roche, spokesman for the Luxembourg-based fund, said.
The fund is providing €17.7 billion under Ireland’s bailout and €26 billion under that for Portugal. – (Bloomberg)