A holding of 7.2% of shares in the energy company Fortum held by the Finnish state was sold on Friday to investors in Finland and other countries. The deal brought approximately EUR 770 million to state coffers.
The sale leaves the Finnish state with a 51.7% holding in the company. Parliament has set 50.1% as the minimum that the state must retain in the energy giant.
The sale did not come as a surprise. Fortum’s share price has more than doubled in just over a year, and it had been expected that the state would take advantage of the situation and sell its extra stock.
The period between the publication of the company’s first quarter results, and the beginning of summer holidays was seen as an appropriate time for the move, said Arto Honkaniemi of the Ministry for Trade and industry.
The detachment of Neste Oil from Fortum has been successfully completed, and there are no other projects on the horizon that would be likely to have a significant impact on the company’s share price.
In addition to the profit-taking motive, Honkaniemi said that one good reason for the decrease in the state holding was that it would boost the price of Fortum’s shares.
However, Fortum’s shares dipped by more than 2.5% on Friday. This was seen as a normal market reaction to the sudden appearance of a large number of shares on the market. At the end of trading on Friday, Fortum’s share price was EUR 12.26, down from Thursday’s closing of EUR 12.48.
