The federal Government is confident of selling A$8 billion ($9.3 billion) of Telstra shares, as mum and dad investors rush to buy T3 stock ahead of the close of the retail offer this week.
The Government's Telstra sale taskforce says retail investors could buy around A$1.5 billion worthof T3 shares in a last minute flurry.
The retail offer, which opened on October 23 and has had a lower-than-expected amount of interest until now, closes tomorrow.
"We are not in a position to be specific how it will look, but there has been a pick up in interest clearly over the last couple of days, which has been welcome," T3 spokesman Ian Smith said.
"There is certainly more interest - it is not surprising, it is human nature to leave it to the last minute and it appears that some people may be doing that."
Mum and dad investors who purchased T2 shares in 1999 for A$7.40 each have been burnt by the fall in Telstra's share price, which has almost halved since, analysts say.
However, since August 21 this year, the day before the company provided revised guidance on its outlook, Telstra shares have risen from A$3.45 to a close of A$3.91 yesterday.
Fat Prophets senior equities analyst Greg Canavan said the late interest may be linked to retail investor dissatisfaction with the earlier T2 offer.
"It looks like the high net worth end of the market has taken the emotion out of it and looked at the financial side of things and backed the offer, whereas the smaller investor may be still influenced by their past investments," Canavan said. "But I imagine there will be demand for the full A$8 billion."
