The German government has sold a 5 percent stake in Deutsche Post for 924 million euros ($1.17 billion) as it tries to raise billions of euros from privatisations this year to offset the budget strain of the euro zone crisis. The placement, announced late on Thursday, will reduce the German government's stake in Deutsche Post to 25.5 percent from 30.5 percent, and the holding is expected to shrink further when a convertible bond matures in 2014.
State development bank KfW, which holds the German government's stake in Deutsche Post, said on Friday it placed 60 million shares with institutional investors for 15.40 euros ($19.46) apiece. That is slightly below the indicative price range of between 15.70 euros and the market price and represents a 3.6 percent discount to Thursday's closing price of 15.98 euros. The sale was run by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.