By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Elisa Anzolin and Valentina Za
MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) -Shares in Italy’s EuroGroup Laminations, a maker of components for electric motors, closed unchanged on their first day of trading after early buying interest waned later in Friday’s session.
On their Milan debut, the shares jumped as much as 7% before falling back to the 5.50 euros paid by investors this week at an initial public offering (IPO), but still outperformed a 0.95% drop in the all-share index.
The listing, which follows that of German web-hosting firm IONOS, was seen as a potential icebreaker for the frozen IPO market after deals dried up last year as dimming economic prospects from rising inflation and the war in Ukraine hammered share prices.
“We had the foresight of focusing on the environmental challenge and catching the energy transition train,” EuroGroup CEO Marco Arduini told a ceremony at the Euronext-owned Milan bourse.
“Our order portfolio, which we’ll work through over the next few years, amounts to more than 5 billion euros,” he said, adding that more than 50% of electric cars sold in North America and Europe use the company’s components.
The float raised as much as 432 million euros for EuroGroup and its shareholders, Euro Management Services – an investment vehicle owned by the company’s founding families – and Tikehau Capital, bringing onboard some 140 new investors.
The company plans to use its share of the proceeds to expand into new countries and develop new technologies, as well as for potential “external growth opportunities”.
Tikehau Capital has reduced its stake to about 8.5%.
EuroGroup’s listing is the biggest in Italy since electrode maker De Nora braved markets in June to secure a valuation of 2.7 billion euros.
IONOS shares closed the week 11% below their IPO price set on Tuesday, which was already at the bottom of the deal’s indicated valuation range.
($1 = 0.9375 euros)
(Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Elisa Anzolin and Valentina Za in Milan; Editing by Susan Fenton Sharon Singleton, Kirsten Donovan)
