What impact has Covid had on companies in the industrial and service sectors listed on the Ftse Mib, i.e. on 27 of the total 40 included in the main list of Piazza Affari? A study by Mediobanca makes the point, reaching a conclusion: net of the generalized drop in turnover, manufacturing and utilities are demonstrating the greatest resilience, which either rebound or lose less than others, and which above all travel well in Bag. The analysis deals with 16 privately controlled companies and 11 publicly controlled companies, 17 manufacturing, 6 energy/utilities, 3 services and 1 oil. These 27 companies represent one total market capitalization of 386 billion euros, and since the pandemic began they have even managed to limit it upwards: +1,4% the aggregate figure, which means over 5 billion more. The performance was possible thanks to the rally around the double digits of manufacturing (+19,7 billion) and utilities (+9,5 billion), while services lost 4,4 billion in value and the flop of the 'only oil company, Eni, which is worth almost 20 billion less. Saipem and Leonardo are also bad, while Diasorin is the best.
FINANCIAL RESULTS
The decline of turnover on the other hand, it concerns everyone: compared to 2019, in 2020 the 27 companies studied by Mediobanca decreased their revenues by 18,6%, therefore overall by 75 billion. Also in this case, however, it is the industry that holds up better, above all thanks to the reaction in the second half of 2020, compared to the debacle of the second quarter, whose turnover had collapsed by 42,2%: the drop in revenues is reduced to -4,2, 14,3% in the third quarter (compared to -6,5% of the Ftse Mib total) and -11% in the fourth (-10% of the Ftse Mib total). For manufacturing companies, a 2021% rebound in turnover is also expected in XNUMX and a return to pre-crisis levels as early as 2022. Among the companies, Diasorin shines, whose double-digit increase in revenues (+27,1%) clearly benefited from the sale of diagnostic kits for Covid. Stm, Inwit and Italgas also do well in terms of revenues, while even in this case the worst is Eni, which loses over 37%.
The worst data is that of operating margins: the net one fell overall by 42,5% in 2020 on 2019, and in this case manufacturing also did very badly (-44%). In the negative but limiting the damage to the utilities (-4%), while once again the "black sheep" is Eni, which practically zeroed its net operating margin (-97,8%). The feedback on earnings is a little less dramatic. For the 27 Ftse Mib companies analyzed by Mediobanca, 2020 did indeed close with a loss, but only by 1,5 billion in total and the figure is clearly weighed down by Eni's deep red, which loses 8,6 billion. The other sectors float: utilities with a profit of 5,5 billion, manufacturing of 1,3 billion, services of 0,3 billion. In 2019, the combined profit of the 27 companies in question was 12,8 billion euros. As regards dividends, in 2021 a total of 1,4 billion less will be distributed (-12%) than in 2020, but the dividends distributed by large public energy/utility groups (+0,6 billion) and by manufacturing are increasing private (+0,2).
WORK AND MANAGEMENT
In 2020, the 27 companies examined employed an average of 723 thousand people and thanks to the freeze on layoffs (still in force this year) the contraction was limited to 1,4%, i.e. about 10 thousand fewer employees than pre-Covid. As far as the Boards are concerned, a high average age (60 years) and the scarce presence of women, whose average age is lower than that of men (54 years against 60,4) in key roles (10%). 14% of leadership positions are held by foreign managers. Good signal on the compensation front: the crisis has imposed a turn of the screw, as it should have been, also and above all in management. In 2020, the total compensation decreased by 17%, i.e. over 21 million out of the total 102,5 million. The average gross salary of a top manager was 2.056.600 euros in 2020 (of which 834.100 euros for the fixed portion and 1.222.500 for the variable portion), in any case more than 36 times the average labor cost (56.900 euros).
It therefore takes 36 years for an "average" worker to earn as much as a top manager in 2020: from 1984 to 1999 for the fixed quota and from 2000 to 2020 for the variable one. The average remuneration of top managers grows with the capitalization of the managed companies: it ranges from a minimum of 1.227.600 for the top managers of companies with a capitalization of less than 5 billion up to 5.145.500 for the top managers of companies with a capitalization greater than 20 billion . Another aspect that certainly needs to be improved: the average remuneration of a female president is 16,8% lower than that of a male president.
