Medibank delivers big payday in seconds

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Medibank floated on the stock exchange today.

Medibank floated on the stock exchange today. Source: News Corp Australia

Medibank Private shares expected to soar 0:23

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Medibank Private shares are expected to soar when they hit the market after a 5.7-billion dollar float.

  • Sky News
  • 25 Nov 2014
  • News

AS widely expected Medibank Private shares soared when they hit the market debuting at $2.22 – delivering an 11 per cent profit to investors within seconds – after a hugely popular $5.7 billion dollar float.

The opening windfall was despite the sharemarket being down 1 per cet overall at midday, as investors who weren’t able to buy enough in the float swooped to make up the deficit.

Thousands of mum and dad retail shareholders have bought the stock for $2 each, a slight discount to the $2.15 offered to institutional investors.

Brokers had been expecting the shares to rise in value when they began trading, in the year’s most anticipated public listing.

The privatisation of the he nation’s largest private health insurer has raised more than $1 billion more than the Abbott Government had first predicted.

All the money will be going into the Coalition’s so-called asset recycling fund. The fund helps pay for incentives for states and territories to sell assets and use the proceeds to build new infrastructure, such as roads

Sitting pretty: First-time investor Gracie Tanner of Unley in South Australia applied for

Sitting pretty: First-time investor Gracie Tanner of Unley in South Australia applied for $10,000 worth of Medibank shares. Source: News Corp Australia

Scoping studies for other potential government privatisations — including Australian Hearing, Defence Housing Australia, the Royal Australian Mint and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Registry Services business — have not yet been completed.

‘Once they are received we’ll consider them in the context of preparation for the next Budget,’ Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said.

The minister again ruled out privatising other assets, such as Australia Post and the Snowy Hydo.

Originally published as Medibank delivers huge pay day in seconds