In the largest equity offering completed worldwide in nearly four years, Shearman & Sterling's Rome office represented the lead managers in the €7.5 billion (approximately $9.6 billion) secondary offering of 1.15 billion ordinary shares of Enel S.p.A. The transaction, which constituted the third tranche of the privatization of Enel by the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Italy, reduced the Ministry's stake in Enel from 50.3% to 31.5%.  The Italian public offering component of this transaction was taken up by more than 630,000 retail investors in Italy, which made it one of the most widely disseminated privatization offerings in history. Notably, this transaction also included a €400 million (approximately $510 million) Japanese tranche, marking the first time an Italian company has completed a public offering in Japan.

The lead managers in this transaction were Merrill Lynch International, Mediobanca, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.  Enel, which is the largest publicly traded utility company in Europe by market capitalization, is Italy's largest electricity company, second largest natural gas distribution company and third-largest telecommunications company.