Belgacom starts trading at €24.50

Belgian telecommunications operator Belgacom SA started trading today at its issue price of €24.50 on the Euronext Brussels stock market. The stock rose to €30 in pre-trading and stabilised at €26 before falling back to €24.50 in the final moments before trading started.

This is Belgium's biggest ever stock market launch and Europe's largest in the last three years.

The introductory price of €24.50 values the company at €8.6bn.

Belgacom said the offering was more than three times oversubscribed for institutional investors and two and a half times for retail investors with about 140,000 individuals registering for shares.

The Belgian government will hold on to its majority stake, which will grow to 51.6% after the IPO, but has hinted it could sell up to 1.6% of its stake.