Shandwick Corporate Communication is to handle the flotation of
Italian football club Vicenza Calcio on the Milan stock exchange next
spring.
The flotation means Vicenza Calcio has won the race to be the first
Italian football club to float, following a change in Italian law in
September 1996 which allowed clubs to become profit making companies for
the first time.
Shandwick’s activities for the flotation will include press relations,
investor relations, writing the prospectus and brochure and
co-ordinating the advertising.
Deregulation should see Italian clubs following the example of clubs in
the UK like Manchester United, which floated on the London stock
exchange five years ago and is now worth over pounds 400 million.
Management teams at Lazio, AC Milan, Bologna and Juventus have all
expressed their intention to list on the stock exchange, either in Milan
or London.
Unlike UK regulations, Italian listing requirements insist that
companies coming to the market have been profitable for at least the
previous three years.
Vicenza Calcio was bought by a British investor, Stephen Julius, in June
after its former owner, Pieraldo Dalle Carbonare, went bankrupt. The
football club itself fulfils Italian financial regulations because it
has been profitable since mid-1995.
Julius then sold on 62 per cent of the club to the English National
Investment Club, which also owns 25 per cent of Glasgow Rangers. The
club announced its intention to float in August, and appointed a new
chairman, Paolo Scaroni, in October.
- Shandwick Corporate Communication in Milan has been appointed to
handle the flotation of privately owned Italian charter airline, Air
Europe.
The brief includes investor and media relations, as well as internal
relations.
