Government’s latest debt exchange programme technically sound – Senyo Hosi

Convenor of the Individual Bondholders Forum, Senyo Hosi, has described the policy document of the government’s second round of debt exchange programme as a “good deal.”

According to him, the terms of this policy are more favourable in comparison to the earlier debt restructuring exercise and thus must be critically analysed by pension funds that are its target.

Speaking in an interview, he said, “It’s a good deal, no two ways about that. That it is technically or financially a good deal, but inherent may be political risk. But outside of that is a political risk that pension funds will always have to face because their liabilities are long term not short term.”

He noted that the main opposition to the programme from the labour unions is due to the government once again not prioritizing stakeholder consultations.

“I don’t think that if government manages the consultation properly and the communication properly, it can’t get some progress with the labour unions and the trustees. You could hear from the trustees – because they’re a bit more technical – and they realize that if you’re actually looking at boosting pensions returns of the union members, it is rather the deal you should take.

“Because you’re actually going to have a pie yield of about 21 and today you’re around 18 or 19.02 five pie yields on the current papers. So you [the government] just need to carry people alon,” he said.