- Netherlands: The Dutch government has sold off its 12% share in telecommunications operator KPN for some 2 billion EUR. This operation came under its 2004 budget, which was marked by various drastic reductions in expenditure. The Dutch Finance Minister announced the sale of 300 million shares altogether to CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS, reducing its participation to 19.3%. The transaction was apparently carried out at 6 EUR per share. - Austria: The Austrian state has concluded the sale of its 34.7% stake in VOEST ALPINE (market capitalisation of 700 million EUR), the country's leading steel group, of which it will nonetheless maintain control. The public holding in charge of privatisation, OIAG, announced that it had publicly floated 19.65% of shares in the company, 5.7% of which had been reserved for institutional investors, 3.7% for employees of the company and 3.3% for small shareholders. The remaining 15% of the capital will be released via an issuing of convertible bonds with a value of 245 million EUR, whose expiry will be set at 2006. In total, the sale of the State's stake should raise some 498 million EUR for the Austrian treasury. Austrian banks and insurers will hold 43% of the shares of VOEST ALPINE, whereas employees hold 10% and foreign investors just 31.7%. VOEST employees bought their shares at 28.80 EUR, whereas other investors paid 32.50. - Romania: The Romanian government has received fifteen letters of intention from petroleum groups and international consortia interested in the privatisation of 33.4% of the capital of state company PETROM (60% share of the national market and a turn-over of 2.2 bn dollars with some 60,000 employees), indicated Economy Minister Dan Ioan Popescu. Among candidates are the groups OMV (Austria), ENI (Italy), MOL (Hungary), PKN-ORLEN (Poland), GAZPROM (Russia), HELLENIC PETROLEUM (Greece), CONOCO PHILIPS (United Kingdom), OCCIDENTAL OIL AND GAS CORPORATION (United States), and consortia formed by the Russian TNK with BP- BRITISH PETROLEUM and by the American firms HALLIBURTON and REGAL PETROLEUM with Romanian group TENDER. The sale could bring in up to one billion dollars for the Romanian State. - Czech Republic: the Czech government plans to sell its minority share in the former telecommunications monopoly, CESKY TELECOM, or possibly a subsidiary if it gets no candidate to buy its total stake of 51%. Last December, a previous attempt for the sum of 1.82 billion dollars, FAILED WITH A CONSORTIUM BETWEEN DEUTSCHE BANK and the Danish TDC.