Boom of acquisitions and mergers of companies in Italy. So much so that according to calculations by the Financial Times, 2015 ended with new absolute records both in terms of the number of transactions completed, a good 248, and in terms of their value. A record was set at 50 billion euros, which burns the little more than 40 billion recorded in 2010 and to which the maxi entry of ChemCina into the Pirelli capital also contributed, with 9 billion euros.
The newspaper observes how the numerical consistency of acquisitions and mergers demonstrates that the exceptionality has gone beyond the Chinese acquisition. And the economist Marco Simoni, adviser to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, claims the result as the result of the change in climate on foreign investment transmitted by the government.
“In 2008 – says Simoni – politicians would have cheered for being Italian, but now the government is actively facilitating (foreign) investments in the country”. Cite the case of Philip Morris International, which “chose to set up its most avant-garde plant in Italy, rather than opting for other solutions, both due to the availability of packaging machinery and systems in the Bologna area, and to the proverbial ability to solve customer problems Italian workers".
And second Guido Nola, co-director of the Italian branch of JP Morgan, who acted as a consultant in many of the transactions carried out last year, the foreign interest in the peninsula is broad spectrum: it is not just one sector that benefits from it. And at the same time foreign investment could be the catalyst to push the country to get out of the way of the problems of low productivity and slow growth.
