MILAN, Oct 20 (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine has weighed on stock market listings in Italy this year and it could take until next May-June for the initial public offering (IPO) market to pick up again, a Euronext official has said on Thursday.
In the first nine months of 2022, Italy saw 21 new IPOs for a total of 1.4 billion euros ($1.38 billion), according to Patrizia Celia, head of market intelligence Primary Markets Italy at Euronext, the owner of the Milanese stock exchange.
The government in Rome had previously said it was considering an overhaul of listing, voting and other rules to address the “chronic delays” holding the country’s capital markets back and boost Milan’s competitiveness against larger European rivals.
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
While there were 49 IPOs last year, a high for the past decade, 2022 got off to a “great start” but the war in Ukraine slowed things down.
“The conflict and macroeconomic fallout, combined with a drop in market valuations, have made it more expensive in terms of opportunity cost to list a company, with a slowdown in IPOs,” Celia said at an event in Milan.
Electrode maker Industrie De Nora (DNR.MI) was listed in June and its shares have risen since then. However, energy group Eni (ENI.MI) has shelved plans to list its Plenitude renewable energy business due to market conditions.
Celia said some large and medium-sized companies could try to test the waters in early 2023, but added it’s “more likely we should wait until May-June for new IPOs to come back to the market.”
She had some advice for the companies already working on possible listings.
“It’s critical that they show investors that they are resilient, that they are in sectors that will continue to grow despite the recession,” she said.
($1 = 1.0173 euros)
Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Reporting on Sara Rossi, edited by Keith Weir
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Comments are closed.