Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Morgan Stanley and Société Générale are struggling to stem the fall in the share price of Orange, the mobile telecoms arm of France Télécom, which went public on Tuesday in a €7bn ($6.42bn) initial public offering.
The three banks, which led the IPO, watched shares in Orange fall as low as €8.67 on Wednesday morning, down 7.8% from Tuesday's close and more than 13% below their offer price of €10.00. On Tuesday Orange closed 6% below its issue price and below the discounted retail offer price of €9.50.