Fiat: a painful lesson for banks. (failure of a $2 billion Euro-equity offer by Fiat) (Selling Equities to the World, supplement to Euromoney magazine)

It was the largest international stock offering ever launched, and the biggest flop in the Euro-equity market to date. The attempt to sell $2.1 billion of Fiat shares in late September - $1.6 billion internationally and $500 million in Italy -left the underwriters with heavy losses and caused acute embarassment for the lead manager, Deutsche Bank Capital Markets. But it also provided some valuable lessons, and most observers agree that thc debacle will not undermine the continued growth of the international equity market.