Bookbuilding on the 14th floor: the poor quality of the catering was the least of their problems
For Ronaldo Schmitz, the highlight of the deal came right at the start. Just after German unification, the board member for corporate finance at Deutsche Bank was summoned to Bonn to meet Christian Schwarz-Schilling, then federal post and telecommunications minister.
The minister came straight to the point. How much money could be raised by floating the telephone service on the stock exchange?
Even, asked Schmitz, if the government retained a capital stake? Yes, we want to privatize fully later, Schwarz-Schilling responded. How much?
It was an impossible question to answer. The telephone service was still a tax-exempt public monopoly, its true financial situation could only be guessed at and the German telecoms market would soon have to be opened up to competition. Difficult to imagine any serious investor buying stock. But Schmitz was determined to give a straightforward reply, and an optimistic one.
In that case, the banker estimated, around DM15 billion.
Elated, Schwarz-Schilling initiated plans for the initial public offering (IPO) of Germany’s telecoms monopoly as soon as possible.