Shares in Portuguese postal operator CTT will start trading on the Lisbon Stock Exchange onThursday (December 5) after the sale of a 70% stake in the company was over-subscribed about seven
times and raised €580 million for the country’s government.The sale of 105 million shares in the state-owned company for between €4.10 and €5.52 per shareclosed yesterday. Demand outstripped supply by about seven times according to media reports and theofficial sale price was fixed today at €5.52 per share.
About 60% of the shares have been sold directly to institutional investors and a further 10%will be placed via the IPO. Employees can buy 5% of CTT shares at a 5% discount price as part ofthe IPO.
The share will be officially listed on the Lisbon Stock Exchange on December 5, CTT and stateholding Parpublica said in a joint statement. The government is committed to retaining a 30% stakein the company until August 2014. The IPO is a condition of the EU’s massive €78 billion aid forthe financially troubled country.
CTT is expanding its financial and parcel services to compensate for the decline in mailvolumes. Last week it gained a licence from the Bank of Portugal to create a postal bank based onits branch network.
The postal group had an 11.5% operating profit margin with operating profits of €81.8 million onrevenues of €712 million in 2012. In the first half of 2013, the company’s revenues dropped by 3.5%to €349 million but operating profits improved by 4.8% to €38.9 million thanks to costreductions.
Parcels revenues dropped 3.1% to €62.6 million due to lower prices. In Spain, subsidiaryTourline Express increased its volumes by 10.6% to 6.6 million. In Portugal, CTT delivered 5.8million items in the first half-year and remained market leader with a 28% share.
However, over the first nine months of the year, CTT slowed the revenue decline and furtherimproved profits. Revenues were down only 1.8% at €520 million while operating profits rose by 6%to €64 million, taking the margin to 12.3%
Over the January-September period, parcels revenues were flat at €95.1 million and volumes were8.9% higher. In Spain, volumes rose 17.7% to 9.6 million items over the nine months, whilePortuguese volumes rose slightly by 0.8% to 8.7 million items.
