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The Australian Government will increase its A$8 billion ($9.2 billion) Telstra sale to meet demand from institutional investors, Finance Minister Nick Minchin said yesterday.
Demand for stock in Australia's biggest phone company is likely to have exceeded the Government's target even before the offer opens to institutional investors next week, Minchin said.
"We expect that by the end of today we will have already exceeded our A$8 billion target," Minchin told Parliament in Canberra. "The Government will increase the size of the T3 offer to meet the demand from institutional shareholders in Telstra."
The Government, which owns more than half of Melbourne-based Telstra, has offered inducements to individual investors including a discount and free shares as it tries to sell a stock that has plunged nearly 50 per cent since 1999. The sale has been dubbed T3 as it is the third parcel of Government shares sold.
Individual investors had until 4pm Sydney time yesterday to apply for shares in Telstra.
The offer for institutional investors will open next Wednesday and close on Friday.
"In the last three days, we've witnessed a surge in applications for shares from individual investors," Minchin said.
- BLOOMBERG
