Of all the companies in all the sectors in all the world, one of those you would have assumed had learned from the mistakes of the Eircom flotation would be Telia.

After all, the Swedish state telecommunications group was a strategic partner of Eircom. Indeed, it still is, after dithering over the timing of its plans to sells its Eircom shares contributed to the Irish telco's share price weakening further.

Yet, just two months after its own initial public offering - avowedly undertaken with the intention of turning the Swedes into a nation of shareholders in the same way as Eircom's did - the price of the stock is languishing 20 per cent below the flotation price.

Telia chief executive Jan-Aka Kark may be right when he says two months is too short a time in which to pass judgment, but the one million Swedes who bought into the dream - like their counterparts in Ireland - may not prove as patient as he would wish.