Five billion for small businesses. Intesa Sanpaolo has launched a maxi plan for initiatives aimed at supporting the small and very small businesses of the sectors Commerce, Crafts and small Hotels – about 500 thousand, those customers of the Group with a turnover of up to 2,5 million euros – against the increases in the prices of energy and raw materials.
"The intervention adds to the 30 billion already allocated by the bank in favor of SMEs and households since the beginning of the year to counter high energy costs, part of the over 400 billion in support of the Pnrr", underlines the led institution in a note by Carlo Messina.
The details of Intesa Sanpaolo's 5 billion plan
The initiative, called "Grow Business”, was illustrated on 10 November in Milan shared with the main trade associations, with which a memorandum of understanding was signed. The project allocates 5 billion euros of new credit to meet the increase in expenses and support growth.
The plan provides liquidity measures and guaranteed loans, zero commissions on micropayments for one year via in-store POS up to €15, free POS and commercial credit card fees for one year, discounts on insurance coverage products and rental of capital goods to contain operating costs.
Also expected financing solutions in the short and medium-long term to support liquidity, energy emergency management and bill payment. An articulated credit system with particularly favorable conditions, to encourage investments above all towards digital and sustainable transformation, declined on the basis of the specific needs of the individual sectors.
The head of the Banca dei Territori Division of Intesa Sanpaolo, Stephen Barrese he explains: “Intesa Sanpaolo makes particularly subsidized loans available to small businesses in the handicraft, trade and tourism sectors aimed at digitalisation and structural renewal of the company. We provide a short-term line, up to 10 euros on POS transactions, at very advantageous conditions: we are talking about the 50-month Euribor of XNUMX basis points”.
Small and very small businesses in Italy
A snapshot of the industry was also provided during the presentation. In detail, in Italy, companies with fewer than ten employees are more than 4 million, 95% of the total industrial and service companies, and employ around 7,3 million workers, 43,8% of the total. It is the most important size class in Italy.
From a financial point of view, in 2020 these companies recorded a turnover of 658 billion euros (23,5% of the total) and a value added which came close to 200 billion (26,8%). It is above all an Italian phenomenon and a crucial competitive factor for the supply chains active in Italy. The role of these companies is significant in all Italian economic sectors, with peaks of 80% in personal services (out of the total number of employees in the sector), 62% in tourism and 55% in commerce.
Going forward with the data, for these companies the share of added value as a percentage of turnover is equal to 30%; it drops to 23,9% among medium-sized Italian enterprises (50-249 employees). Their propensity to invest however, it is low and equal to half the percentage observed among companies with at least 250 employees (2% of turnover vs 4,1%), with negative repercussions on innovation and digitization activities.
“An internal survey of the Intesa Sanpaolo group reveals the responses of smaller companies to the energy crisis: attention to production efficiency is high, but recourse to renewables is still low. Looking ahead, interventions on digital, innovation and green transition will remain a priority. Only in this way, the Italian economy and micro-enterprises in particular, having overcome the current criticalities, will be able to grow again”, concludes the report.
