What are the prospects of Italian companies in 2016? Ubi Banca, with the scientific support of AICCON (Italian Association for the promotion of the Culture of Cooperation and Non-Profit) seeks to answer this question through the 2015 report "UBI BANCA Observatory on Finance and the Third Sector", within the which experts focus on revenue forecasts for the current year, on relations with banks and on the future of social cooperatives and "second generation" social enterprises characterized by a high level of entrepreneurship and innovation, defined as organizational hybrids.
Social cooperatives in Italy, according to the latest data from Iris Network (2014), number 12.570 and generate a production value of 10,1 billion euros per year and employ over 500 workers. On the other hand, there are 75 organizational hybrids with a production value of more than 50 million euros per year with investments of around 38 million euros (equal to around 10% of the total investments of the CGM network).
According to the study, social cooperatives present greater efficiency and stability in relations with the PA, a characteristic which for 2016 entails a forecast of growth in revenues from the sale of goods and services on the market (+4,4%). At the same time, requests for financing for investments decreased (-3,2%), while the granting rate of the entire amount requested increased (+4,0%) and planned investments became the first source of financing for cooperatives.
For 2016, Ubi Banca's prospects for the so-called organizational hybrids speak of a more optimistic growth in revenues than that of social cooperatives. Requests for investment financing will rise to 79%, with a high granting rate (86,7%). Many will resort to traditional bank credit channels to cover investments (even in the start-up phase), in addition to the significant use of self-financing which will reach 48,6%.
Speaking in figures, for 2016 the cooperatives assume to obtain income mainly from the sale of goods and services on the market to register a positive trend forecast for 2016 and foresee a parallel increase with respect to their financial needs for investments (+10,0 % compared to the previous edition). Among those planning investments (about 49,0% of the sample) self-financing is once again the main source of coverage (47,3%, +10,1% on the previous year) for development and investment needs .
As far as hybrids are concerned, the investment forecasts for the current year are more than positive: 9 out of 10 intend to invest, exceeding the figure relating to "traditional" social cooperatives by more than 40 percentage points. Furthermore, differently from the latter, one organizational hybrid out of two intends to turn to bank intermediaries to cover the needs deriving from investment choices. Finally, 41,2% (+12,4 percentage points compared to social cooperatives) identify the orientation of their activities towards new supply chains with paying demand (e.g. social agriculture, social tourism, social housing, culture) as the main driver for to incentivize an increase in the demand for investment by social entrepreneurs.
