Issuer: Telecom Italia
Amount: $11 billion
Type of offering: Secondary share placement
Lead manager: October 27 1997
Global coordinators: BZW and Mediobanca
"Working on an equity offering is like flying into Hong Kong," said an equity capital markets managing director recently. "The pilot might fly well for 13 hours, but you'll soon forget all that if the pilot strays close to the rooftops and gives you a bumpy landing." The secondary offering for Telecom Italia - the largest secondary offering to date must rank as one of the bumpiest landings ever.
It had all started so well for BZW. The firm had already built up a good relationship with IRI, the Italian industrial holding company, mainly through the work of Bernardo Attolico, the director responsible for BZW's corporate finance arm in Italy. Stet, the majority shareholder in Telecom Italia, was BZW's chance to prove its worth in telecoms. The team had been the UK lead for the Tele Danmark offering in 1994, and had created enough interest to raise the investment required for the whole deal. But not being included in the syndicate for Deutsche Telekom had hit hard. So great effort went into winning the Stet mandate.