The dust has barely had time to settle on France Télécom’s IPO of Orange. And yet it has already earned its place in the history books as one of the most significant deals of 2001.
It has set a troubling precedent for all those telecom companies that were desperately hoping to turn to the equity markets to raise funding and reduce their leverage. As the Orange price fell even after the lead banks had reduced the indicative offer price, anxious chief executives at telecom companies were asking their finance directors to somehow produce a refinancing plan B.
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