JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch placed five months worth of shares in Telekom Austria in just four hours on Wednesday.

JP Morgan was adviser to Telecom Italia, the vendor, and joint bookrunner with Merrill for the share sale. In November 2002 the same two banks led Telecom Italia's €489m sale of shares in Telekom Austria, which was the the equivalent of a year's trading volume in the stock at the time of the deal.