Translated material
Took mail and phone
Germany sold 7.3% shares of Deutsche Post and Deutsche Telekom to the state bank
Germany privatized 7.3% of the shares of Europe's largest postal and telecommunications companies - Deutsche Post AG (DP) and Deutsche Telekom AG (DT). Yesterday, the German state bank Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW) acquired both stakes, according to Reuters, for 5 billion euros. As a result, KfW will become the owner of 44.7% of the shares of DP and 22.1% of DT.According to KfW representatives, the shares were purchased from the government at a discount, as Germany urgently needs to eliminate the budget deficit. Under the terms of the deal, if KfW decides to part with DP and DT securities and resell them to private investors at a premium, it will have to transfer the profits from the sale to the state.
According to the results of yesterday's trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange, DT shares rose in price by 0.06%, to 15.65 euros; and Deutsche Post - by 0.5%, to 19.30 euros.
Germany decided to put up its share in the partially privatized DP and DT for auction a long time ago - it followed the example of other countries - members of the European Union, which are patching budget holes by selling off state assets. HSBC Securities analyst Martin Serch believes that the German government is forced to sell large blocks of shares because the country's budget deficit does not fit into the framework established by the EU. According to official data, the German budget for 2005 may be missing 10-12 billion euros. Some representatives of opposition parties believe that in reality the deficit will be much larger - about 20 billion euros. It is also predicted that Germany will not receive 16-20 billion euros in taxes this year and next year; another 6-7 billion additional expenses require labor market reform, DW-World reports.
France is going the same way. Recently, its government put up for sale controlling stakes in three highway operators, and at the end of March it sold part of its stake in France Telekom and Gaz de France.