Consob: endless exodus on the stock market, record farewells in 2022

2022 was the year in which Piazza Affari recorded the highest number of farewells and the worst balance between income and expenses (at least) since 2010, with 15 companies leaving the main list in the face of only 6 new entries. The data, contained in the Consob annual report, confirm the disaffection towards the Milan Stock Exchange, which in 2010 could count on 272 domestic listed companies, compared to 220 in 2022 (-19%). In this period only in two years (2017 and 2018) the balance between income and expenditure has been positive.

In 2022, Consob recalls, the instability generated by the war did not help, which "led about 20 issuers to renounce or postpone" the landing on the stock exchange. The delistings, reports the annual report of Consob, have deprived Euronext Milan of 28.7 billion euros of capitalization, almost triple the value (10.5 billion) of all the companies of Euronext Growth, the segment dedicated to SMEs, whose components have risen from 174 to 190 but on which liquidity remains low, with an annual turnover decreased from 4.5 to 2.9 billion. In order to curb this trend, in summer 2022 Consob adopted a series of regulatory initiatives aimed at simplifying prospectuses, reducing and aligning approval times with European legislation, confirming the possibility of anticipating issues of particular importance to Consob (prefiling) and introducing the possibility of drafting the prospectus in English. He also collaborated with the MEF in the preparation of the Green Paper for 'The competitiveness of Italian financial markets in support of growth', containing proposals for interventions at no cost to accelerate the reform process and the attractiveness of the Italian market.