Italy's Sorgente cancels €440m IPO on poor demand

Italian asset manager Sorgente said it has dropped plans to list on the Milan stock exchange due to insufficient demand.

The real estate group aimed to issue a total of 134 million shares at a price of €3 apiece, giving the company an initial market cap of €440 mln.

It was Sorgente's second attempt to spin off some of its trophy assets via a listing. The company, a Rome-based asset manager with €5 bn of assets, had initially planned the IPO for November last year but was forced to postpone the operation as a result of 'volatility in the financial markets'.

The Rome-based asset manager said at the time that the listing remained a 'strategic objective'. In May it announced it planned to revive the IPO.

The announcement also spells bad news for asset manager Idea Real Estate and Coima, which have both planned to go public in the next few months.

Idea Real Estate said at end-September that it has applied for a listing of its shares on Milan's MTA junior stock exchange in a move which would help fund a major acquisition signed last month.

The company is believed to be looking to raise €500 mln from the IPO, according to local newspaper Milano Finanza.

Coima sgr (previously Hines Italia sgr) also announced last month that it had won backing from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) to spin off its income-generating assets and convert the unit to a real estate investment trust (REIT or SIIQ in Italian).