Underwriters’ block

«Greed is good» was Gordon Gekko’s motto in the movie Wall Street. But in the real-life capital markets, avarice does not always work to one’s advantage. Just look at how another block trade has backfired on the underwriters and possibly upset the selling shareholder. When the French government put E3.5bn of France Télécom shares up for sale on Monday, the price advertised by the underwriters looked ambitious. Even at the bottom of the range, investors were offered a discount of only 1.7% to th...