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Telk om made its debut on the JSE shortly after 9am on Tuesday, with the shares -- many of them held by ordinary South Africans -- opening at R29,10 apiece.

The Initial Public Offering price was R28. As the share -- which will be known by the share code TKG -- appeared on the telecommunications board, the price leapt R1,10 as orders placed by traders before the exchange opened, went through.

The share in the fixed-line telecommunications giant was welcomed on to the trading board by a host of dignitaries -- including four Cabinet ministers -- at a champagne breakfast in the foyer of the exchange in Sandton.

Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe, Ivy Matsepe Casaburri (Communications), Trevor Manuel (Finance) and Alec Erwin (Trade and Industry), Telkom chief executive Sizwe Nxasana, chairman Nomazizi Mtshotshisa and other guests toasted the launch with champagne.

Shortly before trading opened, the exchange's deputy chief executive Nicky Newton-King gave the ministers and senior Telkom executives a run-down on how trading on the exchange worked.

The initial public offering was taken up by 127000 ordinary South Africans. More than 60 percent of the applications for shares were from historically disadvantaged South Africans who received a 20 percent discount on the price in terms of the Khulisa offer at R22,40.

Shares in the general offer were priced at R26,60 -- at a discount of five percent.

Figures released by Telkom shortly before the Johannesburg listing indicate the company will have a market capitalisation of R15,6-billion.

The offer of 25 percent of the government's stake in the company raised R3,9-billion for state coffers, Telkom said.

The share will be listed on the multi-billion dollar telecommunications board of the New York Stock Exchange later on Tuesday.

The listing marks the end of an often arduous process that was delayed at least once by a slump in the telecoms market.

Fears of war in the Middle East and an ongoing economic downturn in the United States depressed the listing price of the Telkom share and the capital raised is well below the R6-billion the government had hoped would flow from the listing.

The Department of Public Enterprises had originally planned to list Telkom at between R33 and R44 a share.

Radebe, however, appeared delighted with the listing when he addressed guests at the breakfast, saying that the listing was a "tremendous achievement" despite the lower listing price.

"The price, we believe, is an accurate reflection of the value inherent in Telkom at the current time. We believe it provides a realistic reference point against which Telkom can be properly measured as a publicly-traded company into the future," he said.

The government had achieved what it set out to do.

It had championed the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector, broadened ownership of entities such as Telkom to ordinary South Africans and promoted the country as an investment destination.

"There can be no doubt that we have broadened the ownership of Telkom and brought in tens of thousands of new investors. We have made a significant contribution to the deracialisation of the securities environment, and made an equally significant contribution to black economic empowerment," Radebe said.

"The institutional offer was significantly oversubscribed and exceeded our expectations -- particularly in the challenging markets that confront us today." - Sapa

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