Final Word from Wednesday, September 22, 2004
The SEC again shook its finger at politicians who make statements affecting share prices. Premier Stanislav Gross had told the BBC that he likes the idea of floating the Český Telecom stake on the stock exchange, as a way to eliminate the influence of lobbyists. This sent the share price reeling, but Gross is an expert at saying one thing and then negating it a few seconds later. He proceeded to say that he'd tend to favor a tender if it were shown to bring more money, because of the premium for a majority stake. He also cleared the way for lobbyists to get involved by proclaiming that their activities are not in any way dishonest, only that their arguments are hard to evaluate. We hope we're wrong, but we understood Gross to mean that "arguments" might be more important than the bid price in the Telecom sale. That, indeed, could send the share price reeling.