BItNotes n°7
BItNotes n°7
"The going public decision: Italian firm's behaviour"
A.Franzosi, E.Pellizzoni - February 2003
Abstract
This paper studies, through the results of a survey, the level of proximity to the equity market among a group of Italian companies that could be listed on the stock market. The number of companies that have already taken into consideration the going public decision among their potential strategic options is evaluated at approximately 250 firms. Firms' attitude to listing could be related to size, profitability and leverage, to growth strategies and investment plans, to ownership structure and to personal attitudes of entrepreneurs and managers. Firms that show the highest probability to take the listing into consideration are the more favourable to wide their shareholding base and the ones with a dynamic approach to management. They operate in high growth sectors, where high capital requirements could be satisfied by financial resources offered by the market; they have a higher leverage and probably need to rebalance their capital structure. Firms that effectively decide to list more often operate in high growth sectors and have venture capitalists, private equity investors or banks among their shareholders. Problems and opportunities of the equity market as perceived by the firms, and their knowledge of its rules, are investigated. Finally, the study describes how much these firms use advice and external sources of information for their corporate finance decisions, and the degree of satisfaction for the offered services. The results of the survey highlight a positive evolution of Italian firms' attitudes towards the equity market, even if wide opportunities to spread equity capital culture and to improve the relationship between corporate equity operators and Italian entrepreneurs still exist.
Click here to download the paper: (571kb) (available only in Italian)
For further information please send an e-mail to:
alessandra.franzosi@borsaitaliana.it or enrico.pellizzoni@borsaitaliana.it