Shares in Telia, the Swedish national telecoms group, were priced at 85 Swedish krones each last night, valuing the company at SKr256 billion (€29 billion). The initial public offering, the biggest so far in the Nordic region, was more than four times subscribed. Telia is a 14 per cent shareholder in Eircom and is expected to announce this week that it will agree to "lock up" its 14 per cent stake in the company for six to nine months. Such a move would give some stability to the Eircom share price while KPN, Eircom's other partner, disposes of its 21 per cent stake.