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Italian Mask Maker GVS Plans Milan Stock-Market Listing in June

Italian Mask Maker GVS Plans Milan Stock-Market Listing in June

(Bloomberg) --

GVS SpA, which makes masks and filter components used in ventilators and other applications, plans an initial public offering in Milan next month amid a jump in demand for its products during the coronavirus pandemic.

The listing will be the first initial public offering in Italy since the outbreak sent equity indexes slumping three months ago. The announcement comes hours after coffee giant JDE Peet’s BV started trading in Amsterdam, raising 2.3 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in Europe’s biggest IPO this year.

The IPO will be structured as a private placement, with 85% of the shares to be sold by existing stockholders and 15% to be new shares, the company said Friday in an emailed statement. GVS, which didn’t specify the anticipated value of the offering, also expects to provide an over-allotment option.

GVS’s revenue rose 4.7% in the first three months of this year, bolstered by demand for filtration solutions from the health-care industry and from its personal-safety segment, which makes masks, the company said. Revenue in 2019 totaled 227 million euros, with adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 62 million euros. Revenue this year could rise as high as 320 million euros, which would be an increase of 41%, GVS said.

Activity in the European IPO market, which bankers had expected to be shut for the better part of the year amid the pandemic, is picking up pace. So far, listings in the region have been limited to a small group of companies either boosted by or experiencing little disruption from the lockdowns caused by the pandemic.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Mediobanca SpA are joint global coordinators on the offering. Lazard Ltd. is the financial adviser.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.