Small Greek pension funds oppose debt rollover

Five small Greek pension funds have declared their opposition to a huge debt writedown, which was designed to prevent a sovereign default and that has been accepted by several global banks, Greek media reported on Wednesday. The five funds, which include self-employed staff, journalists and police, hold around two billion euros ($2.7 billion) of Greek state bonds, around one percent of the total value of obligations earmarked for the debt swap. Another half-dozen funds holding some 2.7 billion in bonds on Tuesday agreed to join the initiative, which aims to trim Greece's sovereign debt of over 350 billion euros by up to 107 billion euros. Two more funds worth 1.7 billion euros are to decide on Wednesday. Athens has already passed legislation to force recalcitrant bondholders to participate if a majority agrees to the debt rollover. Banks, insurers and investment funds holding debt issued under Greek law must decide by 2000 GMT Thursday whether to write off half of the money they are owed, while those who hold debt issued under foreign law have until April 11 to decide. For bonds issued under Greek law, Athens is targetting a participation rate of at least 75 percent of investors, failing which it has said the operation might be called off, which could lead to a messy default as early as March 20. The country is due to reimburse 14.4 billion euros in debt on that date.