Economy in ruins but Kathleen Gaffney still bullish on Greek debt

Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $19.4 billion Loomis Sayles Bond Fund, said she continues to hold Greek debt and is buying sovereign debt from other European countries. The European Union has “too much to lose” if Greece were to exit the euro, Gaffney said today in an interview with Lisa Murphy on Bloomberg Television's “Fast Forward.” A delegation from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund will return to Athens tomorrow as officials race to put in place a package of measures aimed at containing the sovereign-debt crisis. The European Commission is resisting a push to impose bigger writedowns on banks' holdings of Greek government debt than those agreed to at a July 21 summit, a European official said. Gaffney, co-manager of the fund with Daniel Fuss at Boston-based Loomis Sayles & Co., said she is focused on longer-dated maturities of Greek bonds. The Loomis Sayles Bond Fund has returned 4.8 percent in the past year, beating 85 percent of rivals, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It trails 67 percent of competitors this year after returning 2.4 percent through yesterday. --Bloomberg News--