Investors who subscribed for shares in the German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom will find out this weekend how many shares they will be allocated.

The company said that it had received applications for more shares than were on offer in the next stage of its flotation. It received applications from more than 2.6 million private investors for 315 million shares.

More than 2,500 Irish investors subscribed for the shares and will qualify for a €3 (£2.36) discount on the final offer price as well as a one-for-10 bonus if they hold the shares until the end of 2001.

The allocation of the shares is expected to be announced at the weekend with the shares to be traded on the stock exchange from June 19th. Deutsche Telekom is floating about 200 million shares, or 6.6 per cent of its capital, on the stock exchange in a third stage of its partial privatisation. The shares come from a total stake of 21.6 per cent currently held in trust for the German government by the state reconstruction bank, KfW.

The rush from private investors follows Telekom's 1996 initial public offering (IPO). German investors have already taken on two tranches of Telekom stock with KfW offering the third tranche to investors in Europe, the US, Canada and Japan.

Irish investors are understood to have subscribed for shares ranging from £1,500 (€1,905) to £100,000 (€126,974).