FRANKFURT Investors have already applied for more shares in Fraport, the company which operates the Frankfurt Airport, than are on offer in the group's initial public offering (IPO), Fraport Chairman Wilhelm Bender said in a newspaper interview published on Wednesday.

Rejecting speculation that the flotation of Europe's second-busiest airport could be a flop, bender told the daily ****Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung**** that he was optimistic the listing would be a success, AFP reported.

"Our placement volume is already Oversubscribed, with the subscription period only half over," Bender said.

Investors had applied for more shares than were being offered, "although experience shows that institutional investors only submit their applications towards the end of the subscription period. For that reason, I'm optimistic that our flotation will be a success," Bender insisted.

Private investors have until Thursday and institutional investors until Friday to place their orders for Fraport shares, which the company estimates will be priced at somewhere between 32 and 37 euros.

The final issue price is expected to be set at the weekend, with the shares to begin trading on the frankfurt stock exchange on June 11.

Analysts estimate that the issue price is likely to be set at 34 euros.

Recent German press reports have suggested that demand for the shares was weak, particularly among foreign investors.

Bender conceded that most orders so far had been placed by institutional and private investors within Germany.

"But during our investor road shows, we saw lively demand from fund managers outside Germany," the chairman insisted.

Fraport is listing 31 percent of its share capital on the stock exchange in a move which it expects to raise some 840 million euros (714 million dollars).

Investors living in the Rhine-Main region around Frankfurt would receive treatment in their application for shares, Bender said.