07/07/2015 11:39
Billionaire investor and vice president of the Bank of Cyprus’ Boad of Directors Wilbur Ross, who is heavily invested in Greece’s third largest bank, said he believed Greece would make a new debt deal with euro zone leaders.
Ross told CNBC on Tuesday "I think that the deal will probably be similar to what European Commission President Mr. Juncker had put forward last week before the talks broke off. And I think if there's a big change it probably would be in the form of some sort of debt concession to Greece. I don't think there's going to be a radical change from what was put on the table prior to the electoral vote," he added.
"All the polls I've seen show a clear majority of the Greek people want to stay in the EU. Now, it's also true that they don't want austerity and those two are logically inconsistent. But certainly the impetus of the vote was not to get out of the EU, and Mr. Tsipras made clear that that was not his intention either," he said.
"We're about halfway there now and I hope he will be able to keep his promise," Ross said.
Ross, who is part of a group of investors that poured 1.33 billion euros ($1.47 billion) into Greece's Eurobank Ergasias in 2014, is still hopeful that he can make money on his investment in spite of the increasingly precarious state of the country's banking sector, according to CNBC.
Ross, however, is unconcerned about the risk of a bank run when they do re-open.
"In the context of the deal there would be no reason for a big run on the banks. And I just don't think that that's in the cards," he said.
"Now if they don't make a deal, and you do have a collapse in the economy that could be a very different situation. But it doesn't feel to us as though that's what is going to happen," he added.
Asked how long it would be before he considered selling his stake in Eurobank Ergasias, Ross said it would be a while from now.
"The last quote on Eurobank stock was a tiny fraction of its book value just before they announced the moratorium and the suspension of trading. So certainly at any kind of price like that, one would be more sensible probably to be a buyer than to be a seller," he said.
Before the interruption of the bailout talks, Greek banks were making fundamental progress, Ross noted.
"Assuming the talks go through, the ELA [emergency liquidity assistance] money will become available to the banks that will get back to business like usual, and there will be a restoration of liquidity to the economy," he said.
He stressed that "you can't have successful banks without a successful economy, and you can't have a successful economy without successful banks. So their fates are inextricably entwined."
Ross told CNBC on Tuesday "I think that the deal will probably be similar to what European Commission President Mr. Juncker had put forward last week before the talks broke off. And I think if there's a big change it probably would be in the form of some sort of debt concession to Greece. I don't think there's going to be a radical change from what was put on the table prior to the electoral vote," he added.
"All the polls I've seen show a clear majority of the Greek people want to stay in the EU. Now, it's also true that they don't want austerity and those two are logically inconsistent. But certainly the impetus of the vote was not to get out of the EU, and Mr. Tsipras made clear that that was not his intention either," he said.
"We're about halfway there now and I hope he will be able to keep his promise," Ross said.
Ross, who is part of a group of investors that poured 1.33 billion euros ($1.47 billion) into Greece's Eurobank Ergasias in 2014, is still hopeful that he can make money on his investment in spite of the increasingly precarious state of the country's banking sector, according to CNBC.
Ross, however, is unconcerned about the risk of a bank run when they do re-open.
"In the context of the deal there would be no reason for a big run on the banks. And I just don't think that that's in the cards," he said.
"Now if they don't make a deal, and you do have a collapse in the economy that could be a very different situation. But it doesn't feel to us as though that's what is going to happen," he added.
Asked how long it would be before he considered selling his stake in Eurobank Ergasias, Ross said it would be a while from now.
"The last quote on Eurobank stock was a tiny fraction of its book value just before they announced the moratorium and the suspension of trading. So certainly at any kind of price like that, one would be more sensible probably to be a buyer than to be a seller," he said.
Before the interruption of the bailout talks, Greek banks were making fundamental progress, Ross noted.
"Assuming the talks go through, the ELA [emergency liquidity assistance] money will become available to the banks that will get back to business like usual, and there will be a restoration of liquidity to the economy," he said.
He stressed that "you can't have successful banks without a successful economy, and you can't have a successful economy without successful banks. So their fates are inextricably entwined."
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