Lebanon's Investors Wary as Blast Upends Debt Revamp Plans

  LONDON (Reuters) - Lebanon's creditors are wary of the risk of even steeper losses as a devastating blast in Beirut complicates an already stalled debt restructuring process. Even before Tuesday's explosion in Beirut's port that killed 154 people, progress had been slow on a turnaround from deep financial turmoil that culminated in a default on Lebanon's foreign currency debt in March. Reflecting the gloomy outlook, the country's $31 billion of sovereign dollar-bonds, beset by thin liquidity since the default, have sunk generally deeper below 20 cents in the dollar since March. This has further diminished prospects of recovery for creditors already facing wider losses than for Argentina and Ecuador, two other troubled sovereigns which both moved closer to finalizing their own debt revamps this week. Trading volumes on Lebanese bonds spiked to their highest in three weeks on Wednesday, according to MarketAxess data, with financial sources citing a push by some cred...