And of Kolinpharma, a company founded in 2013 and specialized in nutraceuticals (i.e. in the field of food supplements), the fifth listing since the beginning of 2018, which brings the number of companies currently listed on the AIM market of Piazza Affari to almost 100, for now at 98, dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises and which between now and the end of the year, also thanks to the contribution of the PIRs, should register a real boom in IPOs.
"In 2018 there will be about fifty in total", said Anna Lambiase, CEO of Ir Top, equity markets partner of Borsa Italiana, in a recent interview with FIRSTonline, arriving to predict 300 in all, in the AIM market, by 2020. Kolinpharma is therefore the latest in a list of IPOs destined to grow soon: on the Stock Exchange from Friday 9 March, during the placement phase, the company raised 3,1 million euro, with a free float at the time of admission of 31,65% and a capitalization of 10,2 million euro.
Operating in the nutraceutical sector, a rapidly growing business which in the four-year period 2013-2016 recorded a national CAGR of +17%, Kolinpharma specializes in the research and development and marketing of dietary supplements based on raw materials of natural origin. In 2017 it had a turnover of 4 million euros and with the listing it aims to accelerate its growth by enhancing: research and development, the commercial network, and internationalisation. In its sector, Kolinpharma is among the top 200 Italian companies by turnover, i.e. in the top 10% at a national level.
“The company was founded in 2013 as an innovative startup – explains Alessandro Auci, senior analyst at Emintad, a financial advisor firm specializing in IPOs, which oversaw the Kolinpharma startup – while at the time of the listing it was an innovative SME, which is important from a tax point of view because it is an advantage for potential investors”. Just as the Pir, individual savings plans wanted by the last government, provide various advantages which in 2017 injected liquidity of almost 11 billion into Italian small and medium-sized enterprises, leading to the boom in listings especially on AIM.
“The PIRs – explains Auci – have led many SMEs, who would not have even thought about it before, to approach the stock market. More and more companies consider the Stock Exchange a channel for obtaining financing, and at the same time investors themselves are starting to focus more frequently on even very small companies". For Emintad, Kolinpharma is the first IPO of 2018 (on which senior partner Luciano Di Fazio and analyst Ilaria Satiro also worked), but another 8 will follow in the most disparate sectors: IT, construction, circular economy, biomedical, publishing, biofood, renewables and transport logistics.
The debut of Kolinpharma so far it has been lukewarm: the opening price in the session on Friday 9 March was just under 7 euros per share, after three sessions the stock lost something, closing at 6,85 euros per share on Tuesday 13 March.
