Moleskine prices IPO in middle of range The pricing is near the midpoint of the €2-€2.60 range originally proposed and values the Italian company at €488m (£413m). Moleskine filed for an Italian stock market listing last November, hiring Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and UBS to run the process. Private equity funds Syntegra Capital and Index Ventures, alongside founder Francesco Franceschi and management will get most of the proceeds. Moleskine is the fourth upmarket Italian brand to go public in under two years, following Prada, Salvatore Ferragamo and Brunello Cucinelli. It is offering 106.3m shares, including 12m new ones, for a free float of just over 50pc. Moleskine notebooks have become increasingly popular despite the shift from paper journals and notebooks to laptops and iPads. It was founded in 1997 to revive the style of notebook used by writers and artists such as Hemingway and Vincent Van Gogh. Moleskine has offices in Milan, Hong Kong and New York and sells more than 10m notebooks worldwide. The company, which makes only 10pc of its revenues in Italy, plans to expand in China and Latin America.