La Lavazza, historic Piedmontese coffee company and one of the icons of Made in Italy and family capitalism, will not go to MY BAG. She doesn't need it. After all, when does a company decide to go public? Or when he has to solve succession problems within the property or, more generally, when looking for capital on the market to finance a development project. But this is not the case of Lavazza, whose family holds 100% of the capital but has already solved the division between ownership and management in good time, and above all has an enviable ability to generate cash and liquidity.
WHY DON'T LAVAZZA, BARILLA, FERRERO AND MANY OTHER MADE IN ITALY CHAMPIONS GO ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE?
Investors will have to come to terms with it: they will not see Lavazza stock on the stock exchange listed on Piazza Affari just as, for the same reasons, they will not see other champions of the Made in Italy: like Barilla, Ferrero, Armani and so on.
Marco Lavazza, one of the two vice presidents of the group which celebrates its 24th anniversary and which is sponsoring the main English sporting events, explained to the Sole 125 Ore the reasons for the lack of interest in the Stock Exchange: from Wimbledon ad Ascot without forgetting football. And he did it by making the numbers speak which, much more than words, clarify the situation and prospects of Lavazza, now in its fourth entrepreneurial generation. Today the Piedmontese coffee group has a turnover of over 2 billion euros, 30 billion cups served, 100 million profits, 100 million cash generation and 280 million liquidity. With such healthy balance sheets and such a solid balance sheet, what's the use of going to the stock market? This is what Marco Lavazza claims as he observes: "We have a queue of investment banks to go to the Stock Exchange and they even reproach us for too much liquidity", but the intrinsic strength of the group advises against going to Piazza Affari.
COMPANIES WITH ABUNDANT LIQUIDITY DO NOT NEED THE STOCK EXCHANGE
The case of Lavazza, which is not very different from that of other Made in Italy icons, actually debunks some clichés about the weak propensity of companies to go public. It's not always the obsession with control, which there is in some cases, that keeps small and medium-sized companies away from the Stock Exchange. In other cases, such as this one, it is the abundant liquidity in the company's coffers that makes listing superfluous. Certainly, listing could give a company greater visibility, but when it comes to already medium-large groups such as Lavazza or Barilla or Ferrero, the problem does not arise. If we then add the costs and constraints that listing on the Stock Exchange entails, the discussion is closed. But this is not a good reason why, especially in the new legislature, the political forces do not question themselves and do not take steps to simplify and reduce the costs and obligations of listing on the Stock Exchange. They won't convince Lavazza or Barilla but many small companies probably will.
