Alkemy flies, comes close to the offer price launched by Retex for delisting

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) The shares of Alkemy are flying at Piazza Affari, approaching the 12 euro takeover bid (opa) price launched by Retex, a subsidiary of Fondo Strategico Italiano. After failing to make a price in early trading, the stock passed hands at around 11.7 euro, up more than 20 per cent.

In detail, this morning it was announced that the benefit company, Retex, active in the field of digital transformation in the world of brands and retail through the offer of services in the areas of digital, data, creativity and technology in favour of retail, fashion and direct-to-consumer clients, and Duccio Vitali (DV), managing director of Alkemy, have signed an agreement whereby Retex itself has undertaken to promote a voluntary total takeover bid for a consideration of 12 euros per share (on Friday they closed at 9.68 euros, ed.) aimed at acquiring the entirety of Alkemy's shares, for a total countervalue of 68.2 million. The operation aims at the delisting of the shares, and it has already been announced that if Retex were to hold more than 90%, but less than 95%, of Alkemy's share capital, the free float would not be reconstituted, while if less than 90% of the shares were to be delivered to the offer, "Retex intends to achieve the delisting through the merger".

It should be recalled that Alkemy landed on Piazza Affari at the end of 2017, with a ipo price set at EUR 11.75 per share, just above the current opa level. After touching a top close to EUR 23 in February 2022 (EUR 22.9 on 2 February 2022 to be exact), the stock took a downward path, reaching levels in recent days below EUR 10. The investment bank Tamburi Investment Partners (Tip) and its wholly-owned subsidiary StarTip underwrote 425,000 shares in 2017 at the ipo, for an investment of around €5 million, coming to hold a 7.9% stake. According to Consob data, today Tip holds 7.67% of the capital, while the other shareholders of Alkemy are Cesare Riccardo Lorenzini with 10.3% of the capital and Chip Merchant Capital Limited with 6.7%.