Esat Telecom shares made their debut on the Irish stock market yesterday, but judging by the level of trading in the shares it would seem the bulk of trading will continue to take place on the Nasdaq market. Esat is now listed on three stock markets - Dublin, Nasdaq and the Easdaq automated market in Brussels.
Esat traded just once at €21.50 (£16.93) and this values the group at €847.3 million (£667 million), making it the 12th largest company on the market and accounting for about 1.5 per cent of the ISEQ Overall Index.
But apart from chairman Denis O'Brien's 14.55 per cent stake, most of the remaining shares are held by a wide range of American investors, the biggest of whom are Fidelity with a 12.5 per cent stake and Invesco with 6.9 per cent.
Market sources do not expect any substantial level of trading in Esat shares in Dublin and that prices in Dublin will be set by the level on the Nasdaq market.
Esat ADR's - which are made up of two ordinary shares - were trading just above $43 (€41.75) last night, equivalent to a Dublin price of €20.88.
