Dutch bank ABN refuses to forgive Greek rail debt
AMSTERDAM (AP) — ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, has refused to restructure €1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in debts it is owed by Greece's Hellenic Railway Organization and Athens' metro, a spokesman for the bank said Wednesday.
Spokesman Arien Bikker said the debts, a mix of private corporate bonds and bank loans, were part of Greek's government bond restructuring program announced Feb. 24, but the company was caught off guard that these debts were included — they were issued by the transportation companies, with government guarantees.
ABN Amro, which was itself nationalized amid the 2008 financial crisis, has already written off €880 million of the value of the debt on its own balance sheet. However, Bikker said the bank had said at a Greek-imposed deadline Wednesday morning it will not participate in the proposed restructuring.
"We were surprised to see these obligations on the restructuring list, and we do not understand why some similar loans were on this list and others not," Bikker said.
Greece has extended the swap deadline until Thursday, warning investors that refuse to participate that Greece will default on holdouts — it cannot afford to pay the debts.
According to ABN, most of the debt agreements are governed by British law.
That means if Greece defaults, ABN may try to recover the debt in British court.
