All of the Irish stock-broking firms have been invited to become involved in the offering of an estimated £1 billion (€1.26 billion) of Telecom Eireann shares to the public, even though the Irish retail offering is being directly handled by AIB Capital Markets and its stock-broking subsidiary, Goodbody.

This move to bring in the other brokers as agents is seen as an attempt by the Government to ensure that the maximum possible interest in Telecom shares is generated among private investors.

The marketing campaign for the retail offering of Telecom shares will begin on April 22nd with a mail-shot to every household in the State, followed by an intensive advertising campaign involving print, radio, television and outdoor media.

The Government has also finalised the syndication and underwriting of the global institutional offering of shares. AIB Capital Markets and Merrill Lynch are the global co-ordinators and lead managers, and four co-lead managers have now been appointed: ABN Amro, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Morgan Stanley and SG/Paribas.

Half the 35 per cent of Telecom shares being sold by the Government will be directed towards the retail offering, and the general public will be invited to pre-register for an allocation of shares. While this pre-registration does not involve an obligation to buy, those who do pre-register will receive priority when it comes to the final allocation of Telecom shares.

Similarly, the stock-broking firms have been invited to pre-register their own private clients and will receive a commission on any shares that their clients take up in the retail offering. One condition attached to the involvement of the brokers is that they must have dealt at least once in the past year for each private client they pre-register for a priority allocation.

For the global institutional offering, the four co-lead managers were chosen from almost 30 applicants and a final shortlist of 12. It is understood that the four were chosen for a combination of criteria, including geographical spread, expertise in telecoms research, distribution network and their ability to work as a group.

Lead manager Merrill Lynch and co-lead manager Morgan Stanley will be responsible for the marketing of Telecom shares to American investors, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson will be responsible for the UK and Germany, SG/Paribas will deal with France and ABN Amro will look after Dutch investors as well as being involved with lead manager AIB Capital Markets in the marketing to Irish institutions.

Initially, the global offering will involve a series of road-shows in various locations worldwide. These will be followed by one-to-one presentations to the bigger institutional investors. Exactly how many shares will be allocated to the various regions in the global offering has not yet been decided.