reland's hopes of becoming the first eurozone country to emerge from a financial crisis bailout received a boost on Wednesday

following a successful 5bn (4.33bn) bond sale that will meet the country's financing needs until well into 2014. Reinforcing its reputation as the "poster child" of Europe's austerity programme, Dublin said the demand for benchmark 10-year bonds meant the time was rapidly approaching when it would no longer have to rely on external financing to cover its borrowing. The Irish finance ministry announced that there had been 12bn of bids for the bonds offered in the first sale of 10-year stock since 2010. The yield (interest rate) of 4.15% was half a point below that faced by Italy, which struggled to find buyers for its debt. "There has been an extraordinary response to it and I don't think you will have heard me use the word extraordinary before," said Michael Noonan, Ireland's finance ministry. "This brings us within about a billion and a half towards what we need to the end of 2014. That puts us in a very strong position. A lot of ministers visiting various countries for Patrick's day will have a fairly impressive piece of news." Ireland, along with Greece and Portugal, was bailed out by the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Union following the financial crisis of 2008. The former "Celtic tiger" was forced to accept draconian terms in return for an 85bnloan to cover the cost of supporting a banking system ravaged by a boom-bust in the housing market. After complying strictly to the terms of its rescue package, Dublin started to sell small tranches of short-term bonds in 2012 but saw yesterday's sale as a key test of financial market confidence. The government had already raised 2.5bn from a sale of five year debt in January and a further 1.3bn from selling state-rescued insurer Irish Life last month. Following Wednesday's sale, Dublin has now raised most of the 10bn it has targeted to raise this year. By contrast, the political uncertainty in Italy since last month's inconclusive election meant bond yields rose in the first auction since the country saw its credit status downgraded by Fitch, the ratings agency to BBB+. At the auction, Italy offered an average yield of 2.48% for its three-year bonds, the highest level since December. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Good morning and welcome to another day of our rolling coverage of the eurozone crisis as it unfolds. It certainly feels a bit like Groundhog Day today, with a meeting with the Troika in Greece and a big bond sale in Italy leading the agenda.

The meeting of Greek's international lenders was supposed to happen yesterday but was postponed until today to give them a little more time to decipher the numbers. Elsewhere, all eyes will be on the eurozone industrial production figures for January, which are expected to fall again and come hot on the heels of the dreadful manufacturing numbers from the UK yesterday. When the US wakes up we have the country's retail sales figures which have been waning despite the recent boosts to the employment numbers. We will also be keeping an eye out for the /$ exchange rate to see if another new record for the plummeting pound will occur, and everything else that happens throughout the day. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Greece's finance minister Yannis Stournaras is a long-distance swimmer who fixates on goals. As monitors from the EU, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) continued on Monday to scour the debt-choked nation's books and the president of Cyprus beseeched Athens for help in propping up the island's banks the macro-economist was in upbeat mood, dismissing talk of rows and ructions, preferring to focus on the target ahead. "It's like a marathon; the last kilometres are the most difficult because you are so tired," said Stournaras, insisting that Greece was close to overcoming its worst crisis in modern times. There may still be protests even violence at times but the country that was almost written off as a euro member state last summer is, he says, finally about to turn the corner. "To a large extent, Greece is out of the woods. No one talks about Grexit now even economists who advocated Grexit have apologised for it," said the Oxford-educated technocrat, who relishes nothing more than a three-hour sea race against himself. "As far as fiscal adjustment is concerned, we have covered two thirds of the goal. As far as competitiveness is concerned, we have covered three quarters of the distance to the goal. Greece has paid a very high price in terms of austerity But I think the worse is behind us and we can look at the future with hope." Stournaras, who took his post when prime minister Antonis Samaras' tripartite coalition government assumed power last June, accepts he is an optimist by nature. Seated behind his impeccably neat desk, the Greek parliament shimmering on the other side of Syntagma Square in the early spring sun, he is confident that the eurozone has also learned by its mistakes. He feels Cyprus, whose own finances are hanging by a thread due to the losses it sustained when Greece restructured its debt, will get by just as Athens has, even if it is

hard. "Of course [a default by] Cyprus poses a systemic threat," Stournaras said. "And being so close [economically and politically to the Greek Cypriots], we have to be careful and vigilant. But now the eurozone is experienced in handling crises, I am not afraid of having a problem with Cyprus." Stournaras, a man who measures his words carefully, refuses to be drawn on whether Greece would ever allow Nicosia to participate in its own 50bn (44bn) bank recapitalisation scheme. In his first official trip abroad on Monday, the island's newly elected president, Nicos Anastasiades, is believed to have urged Athens to hand over 2bn in aid. After fighting so hard to win the bailout funds, it is difficult to imagine austerity-whipped Greece giving up any money easily. "It's very delicate," said Stournaras. But amid all the talk of bank depositors on the island being forced to accept losses as the price of a bailout, he said any solution must avoid destabilising Cyprus. Stournaras does not deny that with much of Athens' two-year fiscal consolidation programme frontloaded in terms of cuts and tax increases, this year may well be the most trying yet in Greece's gargantuan struggle to defeat a debt load projected to reach a staggering 185% of GDP by the end of 2013. He recognises that the very notion of a "haircut" might also be unfashionable not least in pre-electoral Berlin. But, at some point, action will need to be taken to slay the monster that lies at the core of the country's economic woes. "What I expect from Europe is more solidarity," he said. "We need more investment, more financing from the European Investment Bank. And I want to remind the euro group [of single currency finance ministers] of their decision in November 2012 that, when Greece enters into a primary surplus, our peers will take all the necessary action to bring down interest rates on the loans so that we are able to bring down our debt level." Reducing interest rates, he argues, will be less painful and, by implication, less politically costly for creditors who have already earmarked an unprecedented 240bn in rescue loans for the country that triggered the eurozone crisis. "We started with a primary deficit of 10% of GDP and budget deficit of 15.9% and loss of competitiveness as a result of entering the euro of more than 30%," Stournaras said. "Greek society has shown a great deal of fortitude and patience we have implemented structural reforms. We have opened up more than 50 closed professions." There are many, however, who do not share the minister's optimism and even more who find it difficult to believe that Samaras' fragile conservative-led coalition will survive beyond the summer.

Given record rates of unemployment at 26.7% the highest in the EU and a recession that began in 2007 and has begun to bear all the hallmarks of a great depression, analysts say it is a wonder that the uneasy alliance of conservatives, social democrats and exEurocommunists has survived at all. As the spring sets in and the rains subside, there are fears that protestors may return to the streets as they did on Sunday evening once again clashing with riot police beneath Stournaras' office in Syntagma Square. The government's inability to rake in revenues as a result of persistent tax avoidance has added to concerns that new measures will have to be taken to make up for budget shortfalls, including the possibility of mass public sector layoffs. With the country at the edge of bankruptcy, Stournaras, a social democrat, says ideological differences no longer matter. He cannot say when Greece will return to international capital markets or when tax evasion will be erased. What he can say with certainty, however, is that Greece will be led out of its crisis by a new generation that is "well-educated, empowered, emotionally intelligent". "I constantly tell the prime minister that the future lies in our hands we just need to overturn the tradition of lack of meritocracy," he said. Greece's future will also depend on Europe. "It will depend on [its] architecture," he said. "We need a more federal Europe, closer unity, more cohesion. The bailouts of Greece, Portugal and Ireland are an example of the important changes to that architecture." Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Vodafone has surrendered any right to decide its destiny after a decade of "incompetence" and "failure" and should put itself up for sale, a leading Australian hedge fund boss said on Wednesday. In a searing critique of the British mobile giant's global empire, John Hempton of Bronte Capital has called for the board to be sacked if it sells the company's most precious asset, a 45% stake in the leading US carrier Verizon Wireless. The holding could be worth $115bn (75bn) to Verizon Communications, the fixed-line phone company which owns the other 55%, and there has been speculation Vodafone could cash in and spend the money on European expansion. In a widely read blogpost on Wednesday, Hempton said selling Verizon would mark out "an important part of the British business establishment" as "both venal and incompetent". He added: "With the demonstrated record of failure of Vodafone over the past decade, Vodafone has surrendered its right to make a deal any deal which leaves management to squander the proceeds from the best asset they have the only asset they did not manage." Bronte's third-largest shareholding is Vodafone and it has taken a long hedge position on the stock, which means it assumes the share price will rise. It would prefer either no deal,

or for Verizon to buy the British company outright because selling just the US business would incur a huge tax bill. Analysts at Bernstein Research tentatively estimate the tax bill on any Verizon windfall would be around $20bn. If Vodafone were sold as a whole the company's market value stands at nearly 90bn long-term shareholders would be unlikely to pay much capital gains tax on the deal because the share price has not risen significantly in a decade. "Any deal where Vodafone sells its Verizon Wireless stake rather than selling itself starts with a tens-of-billions of dollars disadvantage in post-tax shareholder value. It would be insane," said Hempton. He said such a transaction should only be countenanced if management were able to take the cash and invest it successfully. Vodafone's chief executive, Vittorio Colao, has outlined an ambition to take Vodafone into fixed-line communications, with the company offering a combination of mobile contracts, home broadband and television in Europe. In a country-by-country analysis, Hempton cast doubt on Vodafone's ability to manage its widely scattered businesses, saying its record is a "collection of modest success and abject failures". The Bronte Capital website claims it makes money by short-selling the shares of companies classed as "frauds, fads or failures". It rose to prominence after lobbying to expose fraud at Longtop Financial Technologies, a New York-listed Chinese financial software company. Deloitte resigned as auditor and the company's shares were suspended. From his base in Bondi Beach, Hempton has been able to witness first-hand the problems that have dogged Vodafone's Australian network. A joint venture with Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, it has been criticised for poor coverage and has lost 1 million customers in two years. Smartphone owners locked into 24-month contracts complained of being unable to use their expensive handsets, and Vodafone-bashing became a national pastime, with Vodafail one of the most widely used terms on Australian Twitter. Vodafone's Indian venture, which began with the purchase of local network owner Hutchison Essar in 2007, has been scarred by a six-year battle with the Indian government, which is demanding 1.55bn in unpaid capital gains taxes. "In India you don't get into that much trouble if you are culturally alert," said Hempton. Vodafone has pointed out in the past that capital gains tax is normally paid by the seller not the buyer, and that the Indian government retrospectively changed the law to make the tax payable five years after the purchase. Vodafone's UK business has been hampered by the fact that it overpaid for spectrum during the dotcom bubble, along with many other networks. The UK is one of the most competitive telecoms markets in Europe, with four operators and a number of strong virtual networks such as Virgin Mobile, and accounts for just 4% of the group's operating profits. Turkey is named as a standout success. Vodafone has made the most of the country's blossoming economy, growing revenues by 18% at the last count, and increasing its market share. However, Hempton saves his highest praise for Verizon Wireless, which Vodafone does not manage, but which has become America's largest and most profitable mobile business.

"It has been a good no, a fantastic asset and their stake is now worth more than the entirety of Vodafone." Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Samsung will unwrap its latest blockbuster smartphone, the Galaxy S4, at the Radio City music hall in New York on Thursday evening as the South Korean phonemaker tries to bring the fight to Apple's home market. With Samsung rumoured to have ordered a production run of 100m handsets and research firm Strategy Analytics predicting the S4 will ship 60m units by Christmas, Seoul is going head to head with Silicon Valley for dominance of smartphone sales. The Guardian will be reporting live from the unveiling of Samsung's most hyped handset yet when proceedings begin at 11pm GMT (7pm EST). Expected big features include wireless charging to a screen controlled not just by touch but by eye movements. The Galaxy S4 should outdo the latest iPhone in areas such as photography and processing power, if the leaks are correct, but will still lag behind Apple on the quality of materials and the selection of apps available to the Google Android operating system it uses. Every leaked screenshot so far suggests Samsung will retain the Galaxy's shiny plastic case, leaving Apple, which prefers aluminium, steel and glass, in its own category when it comes to external appearances. The most eyecatching new feature is likely to be an extension of the ability to control the touchscreen using eye movements. A front-facing camera tracks the gaze, which in existing Galaxy phones is already used to stop the screen going dark while pages are being read, and to adjust the picture to the viewer's line of sight. Trademarks called "eye scroll" and "eye pause" were registered by Samsung in Europe in January, suggesting two new functions, and these appeared to be confirmed by screenshots posted to specialist website SamMobile on 6 March. The shots showed a menu of options, including one to "select the speed of scrolling when the device detects that your head is moving up and down", and suggested it would apply to emails and web pages. The menu also stated: "The device pauses videos when it detects your head moving away from the screen." The rear facing camera is reported to be 13 megapixels, compared with the iPhone 5's 8, while the front-facing camera is also higher at 2 megapixels, which should improve the quality of video calls and self-portraits. The S4's screen should be larger too, at nearly 5in (12.7cm) on the diagonal, an inch more than the iPhone 5. Processors with two cores are enough to make Apple's latest phone

one of the fastest in the world but the S4 is understood to feature Samsung's eight-core Exynos 5 processor. Like Nokia's flagship Lumia handset, the S4 will, according to South Korean publication DDaily, have the option of being charged wirelessly. Rather than using leads the phone is placed on a charging mat, which is itself is plugged into the mains. The wildest rumour so far, put forward by Patently Apple, which monitors intellectual property filings, is that of a 3D camera for still shots and videos. The US Patent and Trademark Office published a filing last week by Samsung that shows a logo for such a feature. Doubters say 3D images make uncomfortable viewing and have not been popular with buyers of television sets or in the few smartphones that already feature them. Where Apple retains a lead over Samsung is in its apps store. Google's Android software platform, which Samsung uses for the Galaxy devices, has attracted a large number of developers and its store is predicted to be the first to reach 1m apps. But content creators still reserve their best products, such as new games, for iOS software because Apple's customers spend more than Android's. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx he Bank of England warned on Thursday that the next phase of the UK's six-year financial and economic crisis may be triggered by the collapse of debt-laden companies bought by private equity firms in the boom years before the crash. In its latest quarterly bulletin, Threadneedle Street said the need over the next year to refinance firms subject to heavily leveraged buyouts posed a systemic threat. The Bank added that it would use its new role as the watchdog of the City to monitor private equity deals in future "episodes of exuberance" to prevent a repeat of the debtdriven takeover boom in the run-up to the banking crisis. "In the mid-2000s, there was a dramatic increase in acquisitions of UK companies by private equity funds," the Bank said. "Many of these buyouts, especially the larger ones, were highly leveraged and the increased indebtedness of such companies poses a risk to the stability of the financial system a risk that is compounded by the need for companies to refinance debt maturing over the next few years in an environment of much tighter credit conditions." Noting that there had been a surge of private equity deals in the first six years of the last decade, the Bank said a feature of the investments had been the use of debt. Buyouts were typically financed by money borrowed from banks, with the debt becoming the liability of the purchased company.

There was evidence, it said, that private equity companies had been particular beneficiaries of "forbearance" by commercial banks the tendency of lenders to go easy on borrowers for fear that they might go bust. But it said a refinancing challenge was looming in 2014, because the peak in debt issuance was in 2007 and the average maturity of leveraged buyout debt is seven years. Deals became bigger and bigger as the decade wore on, and this trend coincided with a loosening of credit conditions by banks, which made debt finance even more attractive as they vied for business. The study cited the case of Royal Bank of Scotland, now 83% owned by the taxpayer after being rescued from collapse by the Treasury in October 2008. An aggressive expansion into leveraged finance was an important factor in RBS's credit losses, Threadneedle Street said. Owners of private equity companies say the buyouts help to make companies more efficient by spurring management to provide regular interest payments on the debt. But the Bank said there were also potential downsides to private equity, including the risk that the pressure for short-term returns would starve companies of long-term investment. "A consequence of the increased use of debt financing on buyouts in the mid-2000s was that debt to earnings ratios, in particular on deals in excess of 100m, climbed to persistently high levels. "One risk to the UK financial system from these debt levels is the heightened fragility of the corporate sector. Specifically, higher debt levels could make companies less likely to undertake long-term investment if that investment is crowded out by the costs of servicing debt." In a separate article in the bulletin, the Bank said it would expect to make a profit on the purchase of gilts under the 375bn quantitative easing programme unless the announcement that the scheme was to be reversed triggered a big rise in long-term interest rates. The Bank has been making money on its gilt purchases since QE began in early 2009 because the price of government bonds has risen. When the time comes for QE to be reversed, the Bank expects the fall in bond prices to push up yields a measure of the cost of borrowing on gilts. Work by the Bank's economists has shown that the state would still make a small profit on QE if yields on 10-year gilts rose from 2% to 5% but there would be a 5bn loss if they increased to 6%.

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