EU Would Fight `Disaster' of Any Greek Debt Restructuring Plan, RBS Says

The European Union would fight any suggestion of debt restructuring by Greece, because it would imply a failure of the bloc’s bailout plan, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said.

“Even a voluntary restructuring should be seen as a disaster,” Harvinder Sian, a senior bond strategist at RBS in London, wrote in an e-mailed report today. “It would mean the failure of the EU to buy Greece time, a prelude to evenutal Greek default and then EMU breakup. The big picture would be horrendous.”

Investors should retain “short-end Greek government bonds,” Sian said. Any default risk will be “delayed for several more quarters at a minimum,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Dobson in London at pdobson2@bloomberg.net