Italian food group Newlat cut the size of its planned share sale on Tuesday and extended its offer deadline, making it the third Italian company to modify its listing plans in the past week.
Newlat, whose products range from Buitoni pasta to milk, cheese, baked snack goods and baby food, said it was cutting the number of shares in its listing to 12.7 million from an originally planned 17 million.
It said it was extending the offer period until Thursday to allow investors to assess the revised terms.
The New Plan
Subject to confirmation following the release of the new plan, it said it had received offers from institutional investors sufficient to cover the revised offer within its original price range of €5.80 - €7.30 a piece.
However, the delay and the reduced number of shares in the offer underline the choppy conditions in the Italian market following last week's cancellation of IPOs by superyacht firm Ferretti and professional audio equipment maker RCF.
As recently as Thursday, Newlat Chief Executive Angelo Mastrolia said that despite the two cancellations, he was very optimistic about his own group's public offering.
Revised Listing Date
Newlat had intended to complete its offering on Tuesday in time for its shares to begin trading on the Milan bourse on Thursday 24 October, but it said it now aims to list on 29 October.
The appointment of a more pro-European government in Rome in September to replace the previous anti-establishment coalition had prompted renewed interest in listings on the Milan exchange.
However, an increasingly gloomy world economic outlook, trade turbulence between the United States and China and the failure of the much-hyped IPO of office rental group WeWork has soured investor appetite for share listings worldwide.
