The initial public offering of Rai Way SpA, which took place in November 2014 and on which Squire Patton Boggs acted as US counsel to the issuer, has been awarded ‘IPO of the Year’ in Italy at the Legalcommunity Corporate M&A Awards held last night in Milan. Legalcommunity is a leading on-line and paper publication servicing legal professionals in Italy. Legalcommunity’s Corporate M&A Awards, now in their 11th year, are a well-established event within the Italian legal and banking circles, recognizing the excellence of legal advisers working on the best deals in a number of corporate law categories.
Massimo Galli, Corporate partner in London, who lead the Squire Patton Boggs team advising Rai Way, was in Milan attending the award ceremony. “We are honoured to have had the opportunity to be involved in this transaction,” he commented. “Market conditions in 2014 were somewhat daunting, with a number of companies unable to pursue their listings, in Italy and elsewhere, so we were delighted to be associated with one of the largest cross-border IPOs in the region, and to have been able to deliver it successfully for the client.”
Rai Way, one of Italy’s leading operators of television and radio broadcasting infrastructure and a leading provider of tower hosting services, successfully listed on Italy’s main market, the MTA, with trading commencing on November 19. The listing was the few to take place on the MTA in 2014 and represents one of the largest privatizations in Europe last year. Parent company Rai (Radiotelevisione italiana), in turn owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Italy, sold a total of 95 million shares of its subsidiary Rai Way (representing a stake of 35% in the total share capital), in a public offering in Italy and an international institutional offering pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S, raising €280 million, and representing a total capitalization for the company of €802 million.
Squire Patton Boggs acted as international counsel to the issuer and its parent Rai (and, indirectly, the Italian government) in connection with the international institutional offer pursuant to Rule 144A and Regulation S. The firm’s team advising Rai Way and Rai included Corporate and Tax specialists across the US and in London: Mitch Thompson, James Gray, Matteo Daste, David Zagore, Alexios Hadji, Diana Milanesi and Will Buchanan.
“Our Italy Practice and our Global Corporate Practice Groups,” explained Mr. Galli, “can draw on a range of talented lawyers with experience equally in advising Italian clients on their foreign transactions and projects and foreign investors on their business investments and acquisitions in Italy.”