Telkom lists at R28

By Phillip de Wet for Telkom
Johannesburg, 04 Mar 2003

Telkom today listed at a price outside the range initially set by government, surprising even the analysts that predicted the initial price would be far lower than the maximum R40.90 envisaged by the government.

The share was priced at R28, meaning that the heavily discounted Khulisa shares have been allocated at R22.40.

The first trade at R29 was more promising but then it got steadily weaker to a low of R27.80 before getting back to R28.15 at midday. Trading in the share was heavy with more than 10.8 million shares changing hands by midday.

"Last night we determined a final price of R28," said public enterprises minister Jeff Radebe at the opening of conditional trading on the JSE Securities Exchange. "This price, we believe, represents a tremendous achievement in extremely difficult markets and is an accurate reflection of the value inherent in Telkom at the current time."

The price gives Telkom a market capitalisation of R15.6 billion and means that the government raised around R3.9 billion in the listing. However, in a speech apparently prepared prior to the setting of the final price, Radebe described the proceeds to government as being between R4 billion and R4.5 billion, still a far cry from the R6 billion figure that was expected until fairly recently.

Of the nearly 140 million shares that have changed hands in the listing, 8.6% has gone to small South African investors, with the balance allocated to retail investors in America and institutions in the US, Europe and SA.

Just under 3.6% of the available shares were allocated to small investors who applied under the Khulisa scheme, which carries a 20% discount.

Of the more than one million South Africans who initially registered interest in taking up shares in the company, about 127 000 have invested in Telkom, with 60% of applicants coming through the Khulisa offer.

The lower-than-envisaged initial price means that individuals who applied to invest the maximum R5 000 under Khulisa have received 223 shares each, and stokvels that applied for the maximum R50 000 investment received 2 232 shares.

The minimum R500 investment will give Khulisa applicants 22 shares and those who invested under the general offer, at a 5% discount, received 19 shares. Individual applications under the general offer have been limited to a maximum of R2 million.

Shares bought under Khulisa are subject to a lockup period of three months and, for every five Khulisa shares not sold in the first two years of the listing, the holder will receive one bonus share.

Shareholder statements and refund cheques are to be dispatched from today.