Seco floats in €397m IPO

The shares were sold at a price of 370 euro cents apiece.

The offer comprised 43,438,950 shares. Of those, 27,000,000 were newly issued shares resulting from a capital increase, and 10,773,000 were existing ordinary shares, provided by the company's shareholders. In addition, 5,665,950 shares were subjected to the the overallotment option, ahead of the possible exercise of a greenshoe option.

Sellers include FII, which owns a stake in Seco via its Fitec fund; the company's founders, Daniele Conti and Luciano Secciani, through their investment vehicles DSA, HSE and HCS; and Lomarini & Lomarini Consultant.

The total proceeds deriving from the institutional placement, with the exclusion of the possible exercise of the greenshoe option, amount to €99.9m for the company and to €39.9m for the selling shareholders.

If the greenshoe option is fully exercised, an additional €21m will be granted to DSA, HSE, HCS and FII.

As a result of the offer, the free float is expected to amount to approximately 40-45% of Seco's share capital.

The company intends to use the proceeds from the capital increase to support the implementation of its three-year strategic plan by consolidating its market position and boosting its international expansion.

It also plans to pursue a buy-and-build strategy aimed at entering new geographies and markets, increasing its customer base and expanding its product offering.

Goldman Sachs International and Mediobanca acted as joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners. Mediobanca also acted as sponsor for the listing.

Previous funding
FII invested €10m for a minority stake in Seco in April 2018. As part of the deal, former Eurotech vice-president Massimo Mauri took a seat on the Seco board and adopted an operational role at the company.

The firm drew capital for the transaction from FII Tech Growth, a venture fund dedicated to later-stage deals that has raised €110m. The vehicle typically acquires majority and minority stakes in small and medium-sized Italian companies operating in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors that have turnover of €5-70m. It deploys equity tickets in the €5-20m range.

Company
Founded in 1979, Seco designs and produces embedded electronics, including single-board computers, carrier boards and development kits.

Its clients include Cimbali, Esaote, Technogym and Vimar. It also has partnerships with universities including the National University of Singapore, Politecnico di Milano and University of San Diego, as well as technology businesses Intel, Microsoft, Google and AMD.

The business is headquartered in Arezzo, Italy, with additional operations in the US, Germany and Taiwan. Employing 400 staff, Seco generated adjusted EBITDA of €15.9m from revenue of €76m in 2020.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Exits
• Southern Europe
• Technology
• Fondo Italiano di Investimento
• Italy
• IPO