Austrian Post IPO stock gains 10.0 percent
Shares in Austrian Post gained 10.0 percent in the first day of trading in an initial public offering (IPO) of 49.0 percent of the business here on Wednesday.
The shares rose to 20.90 euros from an offer price of 19.0 euros.
Market experts said that the shares were expected to close above the offer price on Wednesday, despite weakness on world stock markets.
The company had said on Tuesday that the issue had been largely oversubscribed. The offer prices was set at the tope of the indicated range of 17.0 and 19.0 euros.
Austrian Post is the third public postal service in Europe to be privatised, after the postale services in The Netherlands and Germany.
The Austrian state stands to raise about 600 million euros (768 million dollars) from the IPO.
Austria’s postal service raises $849M to help it expand eastward
National Post, National, Sec. Financial Post, p FP16 05-31-2006
Oesterreichische Post AG, Austria’s state-controlled postal
service, said yesterday it had raised 600-million ($848.8-million)
in its initial public offering. The shares will start trading today
on Vienna’s stock exchange. Post sold 31.5 million shares for 19
each, the top end of the expected range. The Vienna-based company
received more than eight times the number of offers for the shares
available. The company may sell an additional 53.2-million worth of
shares through an over-allotment option. The share sale gives
Oesterreichische Post cash for its planned expansion in Eastern
Europe. The company is among European postal operators, including
Germany’s Deutsche Post AG and TNT NV in the Netherlands, that are
looking abroad and adding to services such as express deliveries as
governments open domestic markets to competition.
Austria’s postal service makes strong debut on Vienna’s stock exchange
Associated Press DataStream FFF 05-31-2006
VIENNA, Austria_Austrian postal services provider Oesterreichische Post AG made a strong debut Wednesday in trading on the Vienna Stock Exchange.
Shares of the company, also known as Austrian Post, were trading at 20.90 euros ($26.90), 10 percent above the 19 euros ($24.45) issue price. The company said demand was strong for the IPO, the largest in Austria this year.
“Austrian Post has clearly demonstrated that it’s market-capable,” Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser said.
Austria is just the fourth country to publicly list its post office, officials said. Austrian Post took a number of restructuring and cost-cutting steps over the past year to prepare for the IPO.
Up to 31.5 million shares were being offered, or 49 percent, with the state retaining a 51 percent stake. Numerous postal service employees took advantage of the opportunity to buy shares, state radio said.
In February, the company posted a 2005 net profit of 99.9 million euros ($127 million), up from 50 million euros the year before.
