Pir effect on the Italian Stock Exchange. The individual savings plans tailored by the Government for small and medium-sized Italian enterprises, those that populate the AIM segment of Piazza Affari, have produced a liquidity boom in just a few months and consequently growth and new IPOs: from the beginning this year the revenues of the 83 listed companies grew by 17%, Ebitda by 13% and jobs by 22% compared to 2015. Now the employees of these companies, which have a combined market capitalization of 4 billion , that's 18.000.
But above all, new quotations have flocked, as noted by the AIM Italia Observatory presented in Milan by Ir Top, Borsa Italiana's equity markets partner: in the last twelve months there have been no less than 16, of which 10 in 2017 alone, for a total of 282 million. "Only in six and a half months - commented Anna Lambiase, managing director of Ir Top - there were practically the same quotations and the same collection as in the whole of 2016".
A boom almost entirely due to the Pir: "It's a magical and unrepeatable moment," adds Lambiase. The ten newcomers of 2017 are above all digital and green companies, continuing a trend which is the general one of the AIM segment (where one out of four companies is technological and one out of five is linked to the environment): these are Glenalta, Pharmanutra, Culti Milano , Crescita, Digital360, Finlogic, Health Italia, Telesia, TPS and WIIT. “And by 2017 – Ir Top estimates – there should be another fifty. The selection criteria are rigorous, they are all valid companies and with good fundamentals, thanks to the new liquidity guaranteed by the Pir".
The individual savings plans, according to the government's latest estimate, should bring 50 billion euro into the coffers of Italian companies, and above all those SMEs which make up a large part of the productive fabric, over the next five years. Meanwhile, in these first six months of the year, the reform included in the latest stability law has already increased the share performance of the AIM index (but also of all the others, with similar percentages, including the Ftse Mib) by 23%.
But what is the identikit of the companies landed or ready to land on the Stock Exchange? The Ir Top Observatory explains it clearly: Revenues around 42 million euro; EBITDA margin at 16%; Capitalization of 52 million euros; free float (in 2016) at 26% (22% net of SPACs); funding in IPO 5,3 million euros (median figure), 12,8 million euros (average figure). The regions most present on AIM are: Lombardy (43% of the companies), Lazio (16%), Emilia Romagna (11%) and Veneto (6%). The other regions are Piedmont, Umbria, Friuli, Tuscany, Marche and Puglia (with the newly listed Finlogic). The market also features 3 foreign companies, equal to 4% of the total.
Speaking of foreign companies, the other big news this year is the renewed interest of foreign investors in Italian SMEs. There are 60 institutional investors among the shareholders of the AIM Italia companies, of which 23 are Italian (38%) and 37 are foreign (62%); compared to July 2016, the number of investors decreased (74), but the weight of foreign investors increased (46%).
