Superyacht Maker Ferretti Withdraws Planned Milan Listing

(Bloomberg) -- Ferretti SpA, the Italian superyacht maker partially owned by the Ferrari family, scrapped its planned Milan listing on Thursday, citing weak market conditions, adding to a growing pile of recently-pulled initial public offerings in Europe.

The cancellation came after the offer period for the listing was extended twice and the price range slashed. Despite interest from a number of investors, deteriorating financial markets led to an “incorrect valuation of the company,” Ferretti said in a statement. The superyacht maker had cut the range for its offering to 2 euros to 2.50 euros per share, from an initial range of 2.50 euros to 3.70 euros.

The lowered price range corresponded to a post-capital increase in market value of 581 million euros ($645 million) to 727 million euros. The company was originally targeting as much as 1.08 billion euros in market value.

Ferretti is controlled by China’s SHIG–Weichai Group, which purchased 75% of the company in 2012. The heir of Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the iconic Italian supercar maker, bought about 13% of Ferretti in 2016.

Last week, Dutch messaging-service developer CM.com postponed its planned Amsterdam float, citing unfavorable market conditions. The troubles largely stem from a disconnect between sellers, who are often looking to offload shares at near top-of-the-cycle valuations, and investors, who say they’d rather wait and see than pay top dollar for new floats with no track record.

Among other listings that have been scuppered is that of German computer hardware firm Congatec AG, which last Friday said it would postpone its IPO plans. Interswitch, a Nigerian-based payments business, pushed back its listing plans until the first half of 2020, while Logistrial Real Estate AG put its IPO plans on hold after prospective investors pushed back against a structure that involved fee payments to an affiliated company, Bloomberg reported earlier this week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Swetha Gopinath in London at sgopinath12@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Blaise Robinson at brobinson58@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen

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