MILAN (Reuters) – Technoprobe is set to price its initial public offering (IPO) at 5.7 euros per share, towards the lower end of an initial price range of 5.4-6.3 euros, two sources said on Friday, valuing the Italian microelectronics company at 3.4 billion euros ($3.87 billion). One of the bookrunners said late on Thursday that orders below 5.7 euros per share could miss out on the float. The sources close to the situation said it was the final price as the books closed at 1200 GMT on Friday. Technoprobe, one of the world’s largest manufacturer of so-called probe cards used for testing chips, is expected to debut on Feb. 15 on Euronext Growth Milan (EGM), a market dedicated to small and medium enterprises, which has a more flexible admission process compared with the main market. The choice of this market is surprising since the average size of the companies listed on EGM is much smaller. Technoprobe will count for roughly a third of the index.
The group has chosen EGM market to speed up the listing process and plans to move to the main market in 18-24 months after the listing, two sources have previously said. Family-owned Technoprobe has offered 113 million shares, mainly from its controlling shareholder, giving the IPO a value of around 644 million euros, which could increase if a greenshoe option is exercised. Mediobanca and Intesa Sanpaolo are acting as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners on the initial public offering.
($1 = 0.8777 euros)
(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin, editing by Gianluca Semeraro and Jane Merriman)
