Italian broadband company Unidata bucks Milan virus rout with IPO

Unidata SpA

16/03/2020 15:11

* First Milan IPO of 2020
    * Shares up 4.6% as wider market plunges 10.7%
    * Demand for broadband services booming in lockdown

    By Elisa Anzolin
    MILAN, March 16 (Reuters) - Broadband provider Unidata
 UD.MI  made its debut on the Milan stock exchange on Monday
after managing to complete Italy's first new listing of the year
in a country that has so far been harder hit by the coronavirus
than any other European Nation.
    Shares in Unidata rose 4.6% before an automatic trading
suspension because of excessive volatility, bucking a plunge
across global financial markets driven by fears of recession.
    Milan's wider market  .FTITLMS  fell 10.7% by 1254 GMT,
bringing the overall drop since the outbreak in Italy first came
to light on Feb. 20 to more than 40%.
    Unidata, which provides high-speed Internet connections in
Rome's Lazio region, held its investor roadshow on Feb. 24-28
against the backdrop of daily updates on the number of deaths
from the virus. By Sunday, 1,809 people had died of the 24,747
who have contracted COVID-19 in Italy.
    Its stock last traded at 13.6 euros per share before the
suspension, compared with an IPO price of 13 euros ($14.46).
    As the European country worst hit by coronavirus, Italy has
been the first to enforce a nationwide lockdown that has
confined millions of Italian to their homes, driving a surge in
online traffic as companies embrace smartworking and bored
teenagers turn to electronic games.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2B54X6
    Chief Financial Officer Roberto Giacometti said Unidata had
been able to allay investor concerns about the coronavirus
impact on its business plan by highlighting how crucial its
services had become for small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs). 
    The Italian government has urged companies to rely on
smart-working as much as possible, forcing a quick change of
habits in a country that lagged the rest of Europe in
remote-working.
    An annual report on smartworking by Milan's Politecnico
University in October showed that only 12% of Italian SMEs had
formal remote-working projects in place, against 58% of larger
firms.
    Traffic on the Unidata network has more than doubled in the
last week, Giacometti said.    
    Unidata, assisted by Envent Capital Market, sold new shares
for 5.7 million euros and has a market value of around 30
million euros. 
    It trades on the Milan bourse's AIM segment, a segment for
SMEs with more flexible admission requirements.
    ($1 = 0.8992 euros)

 (Reporting by Elisa Anzolin; editing by Valentina Za and
Barbara Lewis)
 ((elisa.anzolin@thomsonreuters.com; 0039 0266129692;))