The Italian IPO Experience: a Comparison between Primary and Secondary Market

This dissertation investigates the differences between the primary markets and the secondary markets using the initial public offerings (IPO) as primary benchmark. The first chapter discuss the markets in the European context. It explores the establishment date of some of the most renowned European main and junior markets, it repots some European and Italian incentives for secondary markets IPOs and compares the Italian market with those leading Europe. Among considered markets, Italy shows interesting data. Indeed, it reports the highest number of IPOs on the secondary market relative to total listings. The second chapter discuss in detail the Italian market. The Euronext Milan and Euronext Growth Milan eligibility requirements, ongoing requirements, and main costs are shown. Moreover, the phenomenon of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) is argued. The second chapter also analyzed underpricing, showing that this phenomenon is accentuated in the Italian secondary market. Finally, the third chapter investigates performance of companies that undertook IPO on the Italian exchange between 2012 and 2018. Results show that performance of companies listed on the main market improves after the IPO, while it deteriorates for those listed on the secondary market. The decline is linked to ownership structure change, company’s size, and possible managerial strategies such as "window dressing" or "timing the issue".