Disappointed shareholders

Lithuania had high hopes that the IPO, the largest in the nation's history, would be a rousing success, with the government initially expecting to snare some 300 million dollars from the sale. But wariness about tech stocks worldwide and a weak economy at home forced the government to lower the initial share price from 4 litas ($1) to 3.15 litas ($0.78), so it netted just $160 million from the sale. That price has fallen more than 10 percent since the initial offering three weeks ago. Analysts said disappointed shareholders were now dumping their holdings in Lithuanian Telecom, which was causing a loss of confidence across the board on the fledgling Lithuanian National Stock Exchange. Lithuanian Telecom says it won't be adversely affected. The country's monopoly telephone company is already majority foreign owned and is considered financially sound and well run. A 60 percent stake in Lithuanian Telecom was sold two years ago for some $500 million to Sweden's Telia and Finland's Sonera. Many Lithuanian officials have been left scratching their heads about why the IPO went so wrong. Lithuanian Telecom has only fixed-line services, which many analysts say made it less attractive to investors looking at the booming mobile phone market. Critics say the government should have delayed the offering until the economy improved and confidence in tech stocks was restored.