Privatization of Deutsche Post shares oversubscribed
A privatization sale of shares in German mail carrier Deutsche Post was oversubscribed, and institutional investors scooped up all available stock at the market price, the federal government bank KfW said Tuesday in Frankfurt.
The sale reduces the overall government stake in Post, which owns the DHL parcels business and courier operations in several countries, to 56.9 per cent, with the rest traded on the German stock exchanges.
The sale of 63.3 million shares flushed 1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) into federal coffers within a matter of hours Monday evening.
KfW said the buyers paid 15.79 euros per share, the price at the close of electronic trading in Frankfurt on Monday.
Individual investors were excluded from the fast-track sale. In Tuesday trading, the stock gained 1.4 per cent and was changing hands at 16.01 euros at mid-morning. KfW said it received more than twice as many bids as stock was available.
Lead banks Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have an option till the end of December to purchase additional stock at the same price to a total value of 150 million euros.
German government policy is to ultimately dispose entirely of the former post office assets that now operate as Deutsche Post and the telephone company Deutsche Telekom.
To raise money short-term, the federal government has transferred much of Post to KfW, which is left owning 36.9 per cent of the giant transport group after the latest sale. KfW’s assets and debts do not figure in federal government accounts.
Berlin which currently owns 20 per cent of Post directly, may be tempted to transfer some of that stake as well to KfW to reduce net government debt. KfW specializes in discount home loans and development aid finance abroad.
KfW is reluctant to hold more than 50 per cent of either Post or Telekom, since it would then be obliged under German accounting rules to include them in its consolidated accounts.
The stock market has brightened over the past two weeks, with the main DAX index at a two-year intraday high on Monday. dpa jbp ms
