Milan tech firm Bending Spoons picks banks for $20 billion US listing, sources say

By Elvira Pollina and Echo Wang

MILAN/NEW YORK, April 23(Reuters) - Bending Spoons, a European tech steadfast whose concern exemplary is based connected reviving companies, has ‌picked banks to organise a imaginable $20 cardinal U.S. archetypal nationalist offering this year, ‌two radical adjacent to the substance said.

The Milan-based firm, whose sanction is inspired by the Hollywood movie "The Matrix" ​and which past twelvemonth bought the web portal AOL, has lined up Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Allen & Co, Bank of America, BNP Paribas and Jefferies, 1 of the sources said.

The listing could worth the institution astatine astir $20 billion, the radical said, declining to beryllium named due to the fact that of the ‌sensitivity of the matter.

They added ⁠it is expected successful the coming months, with 1 of them saying it could hap earlier the bluish hemisphere summer, taxable to marketplace ⁠conditions.

Bending Spoons, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and Jefferies declined to comment. Representatives for Allen&Co and Bank of America did not instantly respond to petition for comment.

GROWTH THROUGH ACQUISITIONS

The institution has ​grown done ​acquisitions of tech firms, including video level Vimeo ​and the apps WeTransfer and Evernote, ‌taking its worth successful a backing circular past twelvemonth to astir $11 billion.

In an interrogation with Reuters successful November, Chief Executive Luca Ferrari said the steadfast was acceptable to spell nationalist and that it could database arsenic soon arsenic this year, portion stopping abbreviated of committing to a circumstantial timetable.

A twelvemonth earlier, helium had said that if Bending Spoons decided ‌on an IPO, it would astir apt take a U.S. ​listing, citing the higher valuations typically commanded by exertion ​companies successful U.S. markets.

Markets person been ​expecting a flurry of IPOs successful a perchance grounds year, though ‌the uncertainty and economical harm caused by ​the Iran warfare whitethorn ​disrupt immoderate plans.

Bending Spoons whitethorn besides look to debar overlapping with immoderate of the trillion-dollar names readying to database specified arsenic SpaceX, the sources said.

The steadfast expected ​its adjusted net earlier interest, ‌taxes, depreciation and amortisation to scope $1.4 cardinal successful 2026, from $700 cardinal successful 2025, ​Ferrari told Reuters successful November.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina successful Milan and Echo ​Wang successful New York. Editing by Barbara Lewis)