| The German government will reduce its stake in the company by 7 percent The German government, having serious problems filling the federal budget, continues to convert existing assets into cash. As you know, Berlin recently securitized Russian debt by issuing bonds against pending payments to Russia. This deal displeased Moscow and destabilized the bond segment of the stock market. Nevertheless, in Berlin they considered that the advantages of receiving “real” money were more significant than these disadvantages.
Yesterday's announcement will not lead to scandals: the Germans have followed the traditional path of privatizing state property. The German government-owned development bank Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) announced the sale of shares in Europe's largest telecommunications operator Deutsche Telekom AG. As a result, the state's share in Deutsche Telekom's capital will be reduced from 43 to 35% of shares. The authorities plan to raise 3.7 billion euros from the sale of shares and 1.2 billion euros from the rights to purchase Deutsche Telekom securities. As reported by Bloomberg, citing an anonymous source, the securities will be sold to institutional investors at a price of 15.05 to 15.20 euros per share. The sale was organized by a pool of banks with the participation of Citigroup, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, ABN AMRO Rothschild, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. It is known that banks will put up for sale 198 million ordinary shares and 30 million in the form of options. “By placing a certain share of shares and rights to purchase shares, we are continuing the privatization of Deutsche Telekom,” KfW said in a statement.
Currently, the German government is the company's largest shareholder. In total, it owns 43% of Deutsche Telekom, partly through KfW. The government directly owns 26.1% of the company's shares, KfW - 16.7%. The dilution of assets was carried out for their further sale and privatization of the largest state monopoly. Once the deal is completed, the government's total stake in Deutsche Telekom will be reduced by 7%. After the news of the sale, Deutsche Telekom shares slightly lost their position on the market, losing about 1% of their value. Yesterday, by the middle of trading on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, one share was trading at 15.05 euros. Denis UVAROV |
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