Cesky Telecom is beginning to dominate trading even though most of the volume is generated through bloc trades. Cesky Telecom came under pressure after agency reports hinted that the placement of the government-held 51% stake is imminent. We believe that the Finance Minister’s call to postpone the Cabinet decision by 1 week and the consensus among Cabinet members leaning in favour of the placement may indicate that the entire process will be launched next week. In terms of timing, the question is whether the whole process will be accompanied by a management road show or not - but with or without one, the entire process should take a maximum of 2 weeks to complete. Philip Morris continues to benefit from the outflows from banking shares, with the stock adding a further 2.62%. It has now added over 7% over the last 5 sessions. Investors should start watching out for possible political shake ups after last weekend’s Senate elections where the right-wing ODS scored a massive success and its leaders indicated yesterday they may seek early parliamentary elections. Regular elections are due in 2006.
Milan Procházka, Patria Finance