Ferretti lands on the stock exchange and bypasses the golden power obstacle
Already present in Hong Kong, Ferretti will also be listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. In view of the dual listing, the presence of the Chinese group Weichai has been reduced: a way to avoid golden power after the Pirelli case?
Tomorrow, Tuesday 27 June, the listing on the Milan stock exchange of the Ferretti Group, a shipbuilding company specializing in the construction of yachts and owner of the Riva, Pershing and Wally brands, is expected. Its capitalization amounts to around 1 billion euros, thanks to the recent sale of shares placed at 3 euros each.
THE FIRST DUAL LISTING IN EUROPE OF A SECURITY ALREADY LISTED IN HONG KONG
Christian Basellini, an analyst at UniCredit, said that the Ferretti Group is "the first dual listing [double quotation, ed ] on a European market of a security listed in Hong Kong, with a process that could now be repeatable by other companies" .
THE "EXCELLENT" RELATIONS WITH THE CHINESE OF WEICHAI
Ferretti is headquartered in Italy but is owned by the Chinese state-owned Weichai Group, the main shareholder, and is already listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in China.
Ferretti's CEO, Alberto Galassi, spoke of "excellent" relations with Weichai. In fact – as Il Sole 24 Ore recalled – Weichai bought Ferretti when it was in crisis, in 2012, supporting its relaunch and maintaining the Italian spirit of the management.
NUMBERS AND EXPANSION PLANS
In the first quarter of 2023 Ferretti reported a net profit of 18.6 million (a growth of 42 percent) and an order backlog of 1.4 billion (+15.4 percent). The company explained that it wanted to focus more on high value-added services such as maintenance interventions.
Last February, the Italian authorities approved Ferretti's project for the construction of a factory dedicated to the construction of yachts in the port of Taranto, in Puglia , more precisely at the former Yard Belleli. The investment is worth a total of 204 million euros: it was supported with 137 million of public funds.
Then in March, Ferretti took over the San Vitale shipyard in Marina di Ravenna , with the intention of dedicating it to the production of yachts.
FERRETTI RISKS THE GOLDEN POWER ?
According to Galassi, the Ferretti Group does not risk problems with the golden power , the special powers that allow the government to intervene in strategic sectors to protect the national interest and which has recently been used on Pirelli , a tire company controlled by the state-owned group Sinochem with 37 percent.
Galassi explained to the Radiocor agency that “in 2022, on the occasion of the listing in Hong Kong, we asked the then Italian government [that of Mario Draghi, ed ] about our situation in terms of golden power and we were told its inapplicability. This year we asked again and the inapplicability of the same was confirmed”.
The specter of golden power could have been exorcised with the dilution of Weichai's presence in Ferretti's share capital, which with the listing on the Milan stock exchange goes from 67 to 35 percent. Radiocor wrote that Ferretti has become the nautical company with the largest floating capital in the world.
THE NEW SHAREHOLDING STRUCTURE
Together with the reduction of Weichai's stake, the listing operation on Piazza Affari saw the participation of three anchor investors , or reference investors, who will together control 13 percent of the capital: they are the Chimera UAE fund, with 3 per cent about a hundred; Danilo Iervolino, who controls the BFC Media publishing house (publishes L'Espresso ) and is president of Salernitana; Karel Komarek, entrepreneur of Czech nationality who founded the investment company KKCG. Iervolino and Komarek jointly own 10 percent of Ferretti.
Piero Ferrari remains in the shareholding structure with 8 percent (through F Investments): Alberto Galassi, CEO of Ferretti, is his son-in-law.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/ferretti-quotazione-borsa-milano/ on Mon, 26 Jun 2023 07:31:21 +0000.