The final rush of share applications for the Telecom Eireann flotation is expected to start today, ahead of the deadline of 4 p.m. tomorrow.
Experience from British privatisations shows that more than three-quarters of applications tend to be received in the final three days, and AIB branches around the State are braced for a flood of callers today and tomorrow.
Banks and building societies are reporting strong demand for loans as people borrow to buy shares. TSB Bank was "snowed under" with applications for funds, according to a spokesman.
At Irish Life and Permanent a spokesman said it expects to lend up to £10 million for Telecom shares and reported it had a "queue for loans as long as Leeson Street".
While the public is lodging its application money into AIB, the Government is at pains to ensure that it gets the benefit of the funds. The holding account into which the hundreds of millions of pounds is going is emptied twice a day and the funds are sent to a special account in the Central Bank, managed by the National Treasury Management Agency on behalf of the Government.
While the vast majority of share application forms are being filled out correctly, mistakes are still being made. Those applying today and tomorrow should be careful to fill in the form correctly.
While the deadline for the public to apply for shares is tomorrow, major financial institutions have until next Tuesday. All the signs are that these institutions want to buy many more shares than they are allocated, which is likely to support the share price when it floats.
Investors in Telecom will be anxiously watching the reaction of international markets to an expected increase in US interest rates. They will be hoping for a better initial return than that from Deutsche Telekom shares, where 2,500 Irish investors saw a rise of just 2 per cent in the first day's trading yesterday. While discussions on the price of the Telecom issue have still to get under way in earnest, sources believe that it will be priced to give a stronger early returns to the hundreds of thousands of investors.