Binding bids, which were to be submitted last Friday by midnight, will be appraised at the London office of Goldman Sachs, the government’s privatization advisor. The Czech weekly magazine Euro today confirmed earlier expectations that all four short-listed bidders (Societe General, UniCredito, Hypovereinsbank and Credit Agricole) submitted a bid. The advisor now has three weeks to make a recommendation. A second round of bidding is to be held, in order to allow the top two contenders to raise their bids. The finance minister has recently said that the government expects no less than CZK 40 bil. for its 60% stake (implying a selling price of no less than CZK 1,750 per share). Euro quotes a source as saying that one of the bidders is willing to pay more than CZK 40 bil. This piece of information may help KB stock make further gains today. We maintain our 12M target price of CZK 1,095, and our hold recommendation.
(Ondřej Daťka)