Europe’s largest ever share flotation, the partial privatization of Deutsche Telekom AG will be offered to investors at somewhere between 25 and 30 marks – but a grey market, trading the shares in when-sold form, started operating yesterday, and the phantom equity was changing hands at prices as high as 39 marks, far above what most analysts believe the company is worth. The sale of the first 500 million shares is to take place on November 18, and is open for subscription from today until November 14. A final price will be set during the weekend of November 16-17. More than 3 million Germans have already signed up to buy shares – individuals get a 50 pfennig discount on each share up to 300 shares – which will be between $5,000 and $6,000 of shares. Anyone holding shares for three years will get one new share for every 10 held. The number is more than twice as many as the number of Britons that registered for British Telecommunications Plc’s flotation 12 years ago. Up to 67% of the shares will be placed in Germany, as much as 18% will be sold in the US, Canada and Latin America. Another 12% will go to British investors, while the rest of Europe and Asia will each be offered up to 8%.
