Portugal raises €578m from sale of postal service

Portugal has raised 578 million euros (784 million U.S. dollars) by selling a 70-percent share of the country's postal service CTT, the Securities Market Commission said Tuesday. The sale was part of Portugal's privatization process, required under the country's 78-billion-euro (106-billion-dollar) bailout agreement clinched in May 2011 with the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, to reduce its debt burden. Portugal is selling a total of 105 million shares of the 493-year-old national postal service, 21 million of which will go to individual investors with the remainder going to institutional investors. The shares were priced at 5.52 euros (7.49 dollars) per share for the public, which Secretary of State Sergio Monteiro considered "adequate" and "fair," while the 5.25 million shares reserved for CTT employees were priced at 5.24 euros (7.11 dollars) per share. Last month, the Portuguese government set a price range of 4.10 euros (5.56 dollars) to 5.52 euros (7.49 dollars) per share and put the value of the postal service at 828 million euros (1.124 billion dollars), which included a 30-percent stake to be retained by the state. The shares are expected to be traded on the Lisbon stock exchange on Thursday.