Netia share offering oversubscribed in domestic market

Telecom company Netia Holding yesterday announced that half of the shares in its initial public offering have been allotted to domestic investors and the other half will be issued as Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) to foreign buyers. Individual investors have placed orders for 720,000 shares but there are only 300,000 available creating an oversubscription rate of 41.88%. Small investors will pay zl. 110 per share. Employee oversubscription was lower at 31.9%. The employee share price is zl .77, a discount of 30%. Out of the 1.9 million shares available for institutional investors, 40% are allotted to domestic institutions with the rest issued as GDRs to foreign investors. Based on the issue price of zl. 110 per share, Netia has a market capitalization of zl. 3.5 billion, which would place it ninth among companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE). The company is already listed on New York's Nasdaq market. (Gazeta Wyborcza, page 28) T.J.