Benetton signs up for shares in Brunello Cucinelli’s Italian IPO
ITALIAN clothing group Benetton said yesterday it had bought two per cent of cashmere specialist Brunello Cucinelli, which is in the process of listing its shares in Milan.
Cucinelli has priced its initial public offering at €7.75 per share, the top of the planned range. The offer was covered around 17 times at the highest price, it said in a statement.
Sources said yesterday that 80 per cent of potential buyers of the shares received no allocation. It also emerged that the eponymous owner of the group Brunello Cucinelli took an active part in deciding which institutions should get shares and that he focused on around 15 buyers.
One buyer was so keen to get shares that it submitted a scanned receipt from items it had bought in one of the group’s stores, sources said.
The new company, which will debut on the Milan bourse on Friday, will have a market capitalisation of £431m.
In January, the Benetton family announced it would delist its fashion company after more than a quarter of a century on the Milan stock exchange. Its interest in Brunello Cucinelli is said to be friendly.