EuroGroup Laminations aims to rekindle Milan IPO market

By Elisa Anzolin and Federico Maccioni

MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s EuroGroup Laminations, a maker of electric motor components, said on Thursday it planned to launch a new share offering in Milan as early as next month, as the market for public listings thaws after a tough 2022.

Market volatility fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising interest rates last year caused the initial public offering (IPO) market to stall. In Italy, only six companies listed on the main market, and they were mainly small firms.

EuroGroup said in a statement it planned to offer up to 250 million euros ($270 million) of newly issued shares, as well as existing shares sold by several shareholders including a vehicle of French private equity group Tikehau Capital.

Eurogroup, which is controlled by five families, said it would use the IPO proceeds to speed up its expansion plans.

The company is aiming to float 30% to 40% of its equity in total to raise around 400 million euros, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters last week.

Eurogroup could be valued between 740 million and 1.05 billion euros before the capital increase based on a long-term analysis contained in a research paper prepared for investors by Intesa Sanpaolo.

The company, which produces rotors and stators for an array of applications such as vehicles and home appliances, said the IPO’s final structure would be disclosed before its launch.

It expects Euro Management Services, the vehicle owned by the five Italian families, to remain the controlling shareholder after the offering, whose proceeds will be used to expand its production capacity, geographical footprint and to grasp potential merger and acquisition opportunities.

JPMorgan, BNP Paribas, Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit are global coordinators and joint bookrunners, while Rothschild is acting as financial adviser.

($1 = 0.9261 euros)

(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin and Federico MaccioniEditing by Mark Potter)

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