Australia concluded a decade-long effort to privatize its dominant telephone carrier Monday, selling the third and final tranche of Telstra shares and collecting 15.5 billion Australian dollars (roughly 11.93 billion US dollars). The sale ranks as the second-largest share offering in Australian history, trailing only the second Telstra tranche sold in 1999.
Partly paid shares debuted on the Australian Stock Exchange at 2.11 Australian dollars, just above the 2-dollar price paid by retail investors and the 2.10 dollars charged to institutional buyers. The government structured payments in two instalments to attract buyers after Telstra's stock had lost more than half its value since 1999, with the remaining 1.60 dollars due by 29 May 2008.
The proceeds will flow into the government's Future Fund, created to help cover public-sector pension obligations. After the sale, the government retains a 17 percent stake in Telstra. Combined with earlier tranches, total government receipts from Telstra share sales now stand at 45.8 billion Australian dollars.
Telstra added 100,000 new shareholders through the offering, bringing its total investor base to 1.65 million. Only 18 percent of existing small shareholders participated, though interest from new retail and wealthy investors exceeded expectations, driven by the offering's attractive yield.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.