Czech CEZ share sale to bypass public mkt -report

...Hospodarske Noviny reported on Thursday.

The leading Czech business newspaper quoted an unnamed source familiar with the matter as saying the Czech unit of Austria's Erste Bank , the government's selling agent, would sell most of the state's shares directly to one bidder.

"Sporitelna will not offer most of the shares publicly on the market, but it will sell them via the bourse to a pre- determined bidder," the source was quoted as saying by the daily.

The report said the sale would take place within a month but it did not say whether the buyer intended to hold the shares or sell them afterwards.

The government decided earlier this year to sell the stake on the capital market, but has since declined to give details on the planned transaction.

It held a meeting on Monday to discuss details of the process, and gave no information other than saying that Erste unit Ceska Sporitelna would be one of its brokers for selling CEZ shares, worth more than $2 billion at the current share price.

The European Union member country's government is looking to raise money to fund road building through the sale of the minority CEZ stake.

The state now holds 68 percent of the company with a market capitalisation of nearly $30 billion.

CEZ has started an up to 10 percent share buyback programme, which means that the government's stake would not shrink after the sale of its stake.

CEZ closed 0.2 percent lower at 1,042 crowns on Wednesday, near its all-time high of 1,095 seen last week.

[PRAGUE/Reuters/Finance.cz]