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Wanadoo IPO raises $1.8B
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July 18, 2000: 3:39 p.m. ET
France Telecom's Internet unit prices shares at 19 euros per share
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Wanadoo, France's biggest Internet service provider, raised  1.94 billion, or $1.8 billion, in its initial public offering Tuesday after being swamped with demand for the company's shares.
The Paris-based subsidiary of France Telecom priced 102 million shares at 19 euros each, near the top end of its expected 17-to-20 per-share range.
Demand for the offering was heavy. France Telecom said the IPO was 16 times oversubscribed by institutional investors and 5.6 times oversubscribed by retail investors.
France Telecom (PFTE) sold a roughly 10 percent stake its Internet unit Wanadoo, which boasts some 1.4 million subscribers. Wanadoo shares were trading unofficially at between 20 and 21 euros on Monday afternoon ahead of formal trading, which is due to start on the Paris Bourse on Wednesday.
Institutional investors will get 43.2 million shares, excluding a greenshoe option, which may be exercised in the coming 30 days, while individual investors will get 46.8 million shares.
France Telecom has already extended its Internet activities beyond its domestic borders into Belgium and Holland, and owns an indirect stake in Germany's third-largest ISP, freenet.
Analysts expected the share sale to be popular, given the experience of other former state-run telecom companies that have floated their ISP businesses.
The best example is Deutsche Telekom AG (FDTE), which in April undertook a successful IPO of its T-Online International AG unit, Europe's most popular ISP. Spain's Telefónica SA last year listed stock in its Internet subsidiary, Terra Networks SA. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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France Telecom
Wanadoo
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