Italy’s consumer electronics retail chain Unieuro is preparing for listing at the Italian Stock Exchange as it gave mandate to organize the process to Banca Imi and Unicredit, ceo Giancarlo Nicosanti told Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper some days ago.
The listing project had been already anticipated by Nicosanti himself to MF-Milano Finanza last June (see here a previous post by BeBeez), when he said that the listing would have happened in two years’ time,
Unieuro is the result of the integration of Marco Polo Expert chain and Unieuro chain. The former has been controlled by Sgm Distribuzione srl, which in turn was controlled through Venice holdings, by private equity firm Rhone Capital and by the Silvestrini family.
In October 2013 British consumer retail giant Dixons Retail announced a deal bringing its Unieuro retail chain and Marco Polo Expert under a unique control (download here the press release). More in detail, both Unieuro spa and Sgm Distribuzione srl had been sold to the newco Italian Electronics Holdings srl. The latter is controlled with an 85% stake by Venice holdings (83% Rhone Capital, 10% Silvestrini family, 1.68% ceo Nicosanti and the rest other managers) and partecipated with a 15% stake by Dixons.
Unieuro has today more than 400 shops and has consolidated revenues fo about 1.4 billion euros (financial year ends in Febraury).
