Privatization deja vu

The SEC called on public officials to be more careful when saying things that could affect stock prices. The SEC declined to give any examples of price swings caused by clumsy announcements, but it's surely no coincidence that it spoke up just days after MP Jan Mládek sent ČEZ's share price down by 3%. His remark about the sale of a 16% stake in ČEZ cost shareholders Kč 1.37bn, Patria said. Mládek told the BBC that he was misquoted and that the stock would rebound anyway. (It still hasn't fully recovered.) Back in Feb. 2001, Mládek made a regretful statement about Italian investors, and Václav Klaus suggested that he was making privatization decisions on his own. Jan Kasal, who was KDU-ČSL chair at the time, said that with Mládek and his sort in charge of privatization, we can't be sure the best sales prices are being achieved. And now Mládek is back at it again. Securities Commission Finance