Stock Exchange, Equita first investment bank in Europe by number of IPOs in the first half of 2023 – Corriere.it

The “IPO product” currently remains very challenging and has certainly not worked at its best in the first six months of 2023, as well as in the last six months of 2022; as a result, it was necessary to expand the number of subjects with whom to interface in order to bring our operations to success. And so, by changing the paradigm, Equita managed to close the first half of the year as the investment bank with the highest number of completed listings at European level: assisted Lottomatica, Ferretti, Italian Design Brands, Gentili Mosconi and Ecomembrane, raising over one billion on the equity market for its clients. In June, Borsa Italiana counted a total of 8 IPOs with offers exceeding 10 million euros, followed only by the United Kingdom and then, more detached, by Germany. A good result, considering the shyness that this year has characterized Italian companies, and not only, in their approach to price lists. We must always relativise: the IPO market at a global and European level has certainly remained asphyxiated in the six months that have just ended, however Italy, also thanks to what has been “sown” by Borsa Italiana and by us players, who act as spokesmen for the opportunity capital markets represent for our excellence, has borne fruit, distinguishing itself with a particularly high number of quotations compared to the European panorama, analyzes Andrea Ferrari, head of equity capital markets of Equita.

In our country we had very motivated candidates to go on the stock exchange: those who had the foresight and the will to do so, those who were hesitant or simply looking for a way to maximize value, necessarily had to review their plans. In addition to listings, in the first half Equita also completed numerous Equity Capital Markets transactions, including 3 accelerated transactions (both placement and purchase), 2 translisting processes, to which is added 1 rights issue. We have brought process innovation and extended the dialogue to unconventional market investors, the recipe for success of the investment bank led by Andrea Vismara. If in the past the demand from purely market investors was sufficient to bring success to the operations, now the approach of these subjects has changed: it is certainly more prudent and less proactive. This attitude was compensated by opening up to non-traditional subjects. The relationship we have with many family offices, for example, has allowed us to explore new pockets of demand for investing in IPOs, with a more patient profile, less worried about contingent volatility and intraday performance, explains Ferrari.

But there were other tricks as well. On Italian Design Brands we have in fact launched a fixed-price operation: an element of novelty and innovation on the Italian market as regards traditional IPOs – recalls the top manager. By anchoring the operation to an implicit valuation we have in fact created a very clear, direct and disciplined dialogue with the market: inside or outside under those conditions. On Ferretti, the innovation was twofold: at the process level, with the Hong Kong-Milan dual listing, and at the timing level. With dual-listing, the Company was a pioneer and surely other issuers will follow in its footsteps. All this coincided with an extremely accelerated operation, with a bookbuilding process of one and a half days. Even on the IDB IPO, the book was closed in 5 days to limit exposure to market risk as much as possible. It can certainly be said that the common denominator of all recent quotes has been speed of execution.