The French government has raised €5.1bn ($6.2bn) from the sale of shares in France Télécom after the four banks involved exercised a €600m greenshoe option to satisfy investor demand. The deal was covered 1.2 times.

The French telecom group's own €1bn convertible bond, launched at the same time, was three times covered, priced with a premium of 35.5%, just above the middle of the bookbuilding range, with an interest payment of 1.6%. On Thursday morning it was trading above par at €100.3.