Portugal raises 580 mn euros from post privatisation

Portugal will raise nearly 580 million euros ($788) from the sale of 70 percent of the national post office CTT after fixing the share price on Tuesday.

The price of 5.52 euros per share was the upper limit of the range which the government set last month when it gave the green light to privatise the CTT and list its shares on the Lisbon stock exchange.

The company, which employs more than 13,000 people, had been estimated to be worth 600 million euros, according to the Portugese media, but the price values it at 828 million euros.

The state will retain a 30-percent stake in CTT, workers were able to acquire 20 percent at a price fixed at 5.24 euros per share and 50 percent is to go to institutional investors.

Trading in the shares is set to begin on Thursday.

Portugal promised to privatise the postal service, currently 100 percent owned by the state, under the 78-billion-euro EU-IMF bailout the eurozone state concluded in May 2011.

The CTT was considered among more attractive Portugese state assets to privatise, having earned a net profit of 45.2 million euros in the nine months of 2013, an increase of nearly 28 percent from the same period last year.

tsc/rl/hd