The promotion in the main index was not lucky at this morning two freshmen who will appear from next June 22nd in the Ftse Mib: Slows Inwit, the tower company that collects the infrastructures contributed by Tim and Vodafone Italia. In red of 2% plentiful too Interpump, which lands among the Big 43 years after its birth, made possible by an intuition of Fulvio Montipò: the use of more reliable and long-lasting ceramic components to manufacture hydraulic pumps.
Entry into the A series of the price list rewards one of the most original multinationals of Italian capitalism, which has always been able to avoid one of the original vices, i.e. dwarfism, showing off the ability (rare for Italian SMEs) to grow externally through acquisitions: 67, both in Italy and in Europe and the USA, also expanding into hydraulics but without running into useless adventures or giving in to the temptation of financialising companies. A weighted path, as confirmed growth without jerks on the Stock Exchange which accompanied the rise through acquisitions.
"Without making even one mistake", proudly declares the entrepreneur, who says he is "the victim of a good obsession, linked to the search for security, the one that allows you to overcome the most difficult challenges, many unimaginable". The leap in quality dates back to 2005 when Interpump scores the takeover of Hammelmann, specialized in high pressure pumps. “The first day I had tears in my eyes, it was a company with seventy years of history”, recalls Montipò, who graduated in sociology as a working student. No less significant is the purchase of the American Nib, year 2007, which allowed the Sant'Ilario d'Enza group to further widen the sphere of action to very high pressure, particularly in the United States.
The strategy does not change under the skies of the coronavirus. The company just announced the purchase of 80% of Servizi Industriali, which owns Macfuge centrifugal separators, for 4 million euros. “With this operation – explains the president – we add an important element to our range of systems and components for the treatment of fluids, a rapidly growing sector thanks to the increased attention towards the environmental impact”. And other moves will soon follow, because the opportunities are not lacking and the cost of money is tempting.
Despite the dynamism and "passion" for shopping, Interpump shines above all for the continuity of the growth trend which allowed the title to cross the crisis with an enviable solidity: in 2020 the price remained positive also thanks to the buyback renewed last March 17, at the beginning of a phase of extreme volatility for the stock markets: in the last two years the company has spent 54 million and 79 million euros for the repurchase of securities, and has used part of the shares for the purchase of Reggiana Riduttori and Transtecno.
The first quarter recorded results slightly higher than expected in terms of profitability, thanks above all to the Water Jetting business. Specifically, the turnover amounted to 344 million euros, in line on an annual basis in absolute terms and down by 11,2% at an organic level (acquisitions of Hydra Dyne, Reggiana Riduttori and Transtecno) due to the coronavirus. 2019 ended with strong growth in results. Net sales for the year amounted to €1.368,6 million, up 7,0% on sales in 2018.
In short, a good business story, which can teach us something in these days full of rhetoric. Because, as Montipò himself said, the growth of Interpump “is the daughter of a post-war dream, of the worst poverty, of the desire for redemption. Probably among young people now there is more intelligence, vision, they are capable of rapid accelerations. At the same time, if you ask to work on weekends because a bushing needs to be fixed, they say no. The difference is made by hunger, which is the mother of all dreams”. Let's hope we don't find ourselves in the same conditions.
