Eircom shares remained under strong pressure on the Irish market yesterday as investors waited for a statement from 14 per cent shareholder Telia that it would "lock up" its Eircom shares for a six-month period.
But while a "lock up" by Telia would then allow 21 per cent shareholder KPN to go ahead with the planned sale of its entire 21 per cent stake, some market sources are not convinced by a recent statement from the Dutch group that its plans to sell its Eircom stake have not changed.
Eircom closed 10 cents lower on €2.70, matching the previous closing low of last week.
Some in the market believe that given the depressed state of the Eircom share price, KPN may yet postpone its secondary offering of its Eircom shares until September in the hope that the price will have recovered.
Selling its stake now would mean that KPN would at best break even and probably take a loss on its investment in Eircom.
Analysts have calculated that when the £1.2 billion (€1.5 billion) clawback paid to the Government by KPN and Telia is taken into account, then the effective cost of buying their shareholdings is €2.54 a share - just 6 per cent below last night's closing price.
