It is reported that telecoms firm Vodafone has had to change its offer to Irish shareholders to sell their shares.

Yesterday the company announced it was giving shareholders the opportunity to sell their shares in the company free of charge, or at reduced cost.

It was believed they could sell their shares at zero or reduced sales commission and at a maximum charge of €42.

But the Irish Times reports that people who hold between 51 and 1,000 shares and who hold their shares electronically through a Vodafone Share A account, are subject to a minimum sale charge of just €32 using the share register administrator, Computershare's standard online sale option.

There are more than 230,000 Irish people holding between 51 and 1,000 shares.

Vodafone says the price discrepancy is down to exchange rate conversion issues - but has now pledged to match the lowest online commission rates available.

The multinational group has a hugely disproportionate number of small shareholders in Ireland - 334,000 of them - compared to 67,000 with similar holdings in the UK which is a much larger market.

The majority of these shareholders date back to the flotation of Eircom, now Eir, in 1999 and Eircom's subsequent sale of its mobile operator, Eircell, to Vodafone two years later.