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Bending Spoons seen as potential candidate for IPO after

string

of acquisitions

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CEO says there are no firm plans but working to be ready

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Says Milan is great location but faces capital and

regulatory

constraints

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Milan bourse has seen a series of departures, delistings

By Elvira Pollina

MILAN, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The head of Italy's Bending

Spoons says Milan is a great location for a start-up but he

would probably favour New York were the tech company that owns

services such as note-taking tool Evernote and photo editor

Remini to list.

The Italian app developer, whose products count 200 million

monthly users, is seen as a potential candidate for a public

listing after a string of acquisitions this year, including

file-sharing service WeTransfer in July.

Chief Executive Officer Luca Ferrari, who co-founded the

company in 2013, said there were no firm plans for an initial

public offering (IPO) but Bending Spoons was working to be ready

for it, and looking beyond Europe.

"If and when we choose to pursue an IPO, we'll evaluate all

reasonable options. Today, we have a slight preference for a

listing in the United States, but our views may change," Ferrari

told Reuters in e-mailed comments.

In February, the Milan-based firm completed a funding round

which valued it at $2.55 billion and marked it out as a rare

unicorn in the Italian tech landscape. A unicorn is an unlisted

firm valued at $1 billion or more.

Tech companies often look to list across the Atlantic

because of higher valuations that can be attained. A U.S.

listing would be a setback for the Milan Stock Exchange after a

series of defections.

Limited access to capital and an excess of regulation are

among the main constraints facing a company like Bending Spoons

in Italy, Ferrari, aged 39, said.

However, Milan provides a good pool of skills, with

competition for talent less fierce than elsewhere, he added.

"All in all, I still recommend starting and growing a

business in Milan. Were I to start over, I'd favour Milan over

many of the cities most commonly associated with

entrepreneurship," he said.

MORE DEALS TO COME?

Bending Spoons, whose name was inspired by a scene in

science fiction movie 'The Matrix', has a business model centred

around revamping and developing the firms and products they

acquire.

Ferrari described the strategy as "hybrid" between that of a

private equity fund - which he says is the typical rival Bending

Spoons competes with when it bids for an asset - and a proper

tech company such as Alphabet's Google.

He said the company had "the focus on acquisitions" of a

private equity firm, but added: "we're engineers and scientists

and we spend almost all of our time building technologies and

products".

The WeTransfer deal involved a big restructuring, with 75%

off its staff facing being laid off.

Ferrari did not rule out further deals this year, with the

company casting its net widely.

"We've added around 5,000 companies to our business

acquisition pipeline during the past 12 months alone. Naturally,

only a handful will prove a suitable target in the end," he

said.

(Reporting by Elvira Pollina;

Editing by Keith Weir and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)