SNRA....interesting play...Finland Sells Sonera Shares at 23.75 Euros Each, Raising EU3 Bln for State
By Nicola Hobday
Finland Prices Sonera at EU23.75, Raising 3 Bln Euros (Update2)
(Adds closing share price in 7th paragraph.)
Helsinki, Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Finland sold shares in
Sonera Oyj, the country's biggest telephone company, at 23.75
euros each, raising 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) as the
government benefited from investor enthusiasm for phone stocks.
The state sold 127 million shares, or 18 percent, of Sonera,
the country's second-largest company by market value after Nokia
Oyj. Demand exceeded supply by more than two times.
Investors were keen to buy stock in Sonera, which has gained
60 percent this year, because of its 41 percent stake in Turkey's
largest cellular phone operator, Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri AS,
and its holdings in U.S. technology firms, such as VoiceStream
Wireless Corp.
``Investment in Turkcell has produced superb returns,' said
Mika Heikkilae, at Conventum Funds who helps manages about 200
million euros of assets. Sonera has invested a ``substantial
amount of money' in VoiceStream, ``but the potential in the U.S.
market easily justifies it,' he said
Sonera's investment in U.S. companies prompted it to seek a
listing there to lure more investors from the country. Shares are
slated to start trading on the Nasdaq, the second-largest U.S.
stock market, today.
The stock was sold at a discount of 4 percent to its closing
price yesterday, but at a 15 percent discount to the 28 euro-high
it notched on Sept. 28.
The stock fell 1.4 percent to 24.41 euros today as
telecommunications and technology shares were hit by a profit
warning from SAP AG, the world's largest business management
software maker, and disappointing earnings from Intel Corp., the
world's largest semiconductor maker.
Emerging Markets
About a third of the shares were sold to individual and
institutional investors in Finland, the company said.
Sonera has fixed its sights on emerging markets, as well as
the U.S. Turkcell has four million subscribers, or 68 percent of
the market, in Turkey in August. Sonera also has stakes in mobile
phone companies Lietuvos Telekomas and UAB Omnitel, Eesti Telefon
and Estonian Mobile Telephone a fixed-line and mobile phone joint
venture with state-owned Estonian Telecom. In Latvia, Sonera owns
a stake in Lattelekom, the Latvian national operator.
In the U.S., Sonera bought Ericsson AB's 9.1 percent stake
in August in U.S. cellular phone operator Powertel Inc. for $123
million to boost its presence in the growing U.S. digital
cellular market.
Goldman, Sachs & Co., the global coordinator for the
offering, has an option to buy another 16.95 million shares
within 30 days.
Other banks in international offering include, CSFB,
Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley
Dean Witter, along with Cazenove & Co., Credit Agricole Indosuez
and Daiwa Europe Ltd. Goldman and MeritaNordbanken Oyj were joint
managers for Nordic institutions, with Den Danske Bank, Evli,
Handelsbanken, along with Alfred Berg and Opstock. |
