Who said finance goes on vacation in the summer? In his time, in the center of Milan in August, an imperturbable Enrico Cuccia crossed a deserted and sunny Piazza della Scala every morning to weave his unpredictable maneuvers in solitude in the temple of Mediobanca. But without disturbing the memory of times gone by, such an effervescent July has not been seen for years in the world of finance, despite the turbulence and fears related to Brexit, the failed or fake coup in Turkey, the massacres of Isis, the risk of Trump and the fibrillation of bank shares due to the questionable stress tests.
From the new recovery and revitalization plan for Monte dei Paschi without a public penny, to the duel on broadband between Enel and Telecom through acquisitions (Metroweb) or alliances (Fastweb), from the war between Mediaset and Vivendi to the victorious conquest of Corriere della Sera and the Gazzetta dello Sport by Urbano Cairo with his takeover bid on RCS and the tricolor hoisted over the airport of Nice and the Côte d'Azur by the Benettons' Atlanta but also at the Suez-Caltagirone wedding and the Banca Ifis winger with the purchase of Interbanca which thus returns to the Veneto region, without forgetting the conspicuous change of pace and strategy given by Jean-Pierre Mustier to Unicredit which in a few days sold shares in Banca Pekao and Fineco and put an end to the deal that never took off with the Santander for Pioneer. A veritable hailstorm of extraordinary transactions the likes of which has not been seen for some time and of which even the Milan Stock Exchange, while remaining the worst in 2016 with a drop of 21,3%, finally seems to notice as evidenced by the rise in the FtseMib of 7,9, XNUMX% in the last month.
But is there a common thread in the hot July of Italian finance? Someone identifies it in the relationship of peace and war and love and hate between Italians and French, which manifested itself in many of the most important financial events of the summer, but there are those who see it in the continuous decline of Mediobanca, which has lost the battle over RCS and sees a giant of the caliber of Enel threaten, with the support of the Government, the supremacy of Telecom in telecommunications and in the rich ultra-broadband business.
In reality, the driving forces of the summer ball of Italian finance are many more and to claim at all costs to pigeonhole them into narrow paradigms is a bit misleading. What is instead undeniable is that Italy exists and that the signs of awakening of the animal spirits of Italian capitalism are evident. We have certainly not returned to the golden age of finance and the economy of the Bel Paese but something is moving and finally there are those who open their wallets, invest and implement development projects that have not been seen for some time. If you like, call it trust.
