The epidemiological emergency has hit the Italian economy hard, but the The country remains an attractive pole for American investors. This is what emerges from the "M&A outlook: Growth and Financial trends between Italy and USA", the meeting promoted by Amcham Italy, to present the Whitepaper, elaborated by the M&A group of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy, which photographs the situation of operations between Italy and the USA.
In detail, the document offers a detailed analysis of the transatlantic mergers and acquisitions market, according to an economic-financial, legal and strategic perspective. With the aim of providing an overview and above all the attitude of US investors on the Italian system, in the light of the new content.
Although the pandemic has caused a contraction in operations, it has also imposed new behavioral models that could represent an opportunity for growth and strategic investments in the future. In particular, some sectors could exploit the opportunities offered by cross-border investments. For example: Communication, Media & Technology, FinTech, IT Services and perform as excellent as the food industry.
Furthermore, in the last five years (2015-2019), the trend of transactions between Italy and the USA has remained stable, representing a significant share of total transactions.
In 2019 alone, US investment in Italy accounted for about 67% of the total. These are majority acquisitions made by strategic or financial buyers and with a strong focus on the country's sectors of excellence: thenindustrial (30% of total agreements), TMT (27%) and consumer (20%).
In the same year, also the Italian operations in the USA were all in the majority, among these it stands out the acquisition of the Ferrero Group of Kellogg Company cookies and snacks. Also in this case the most interesting sectors were the industrial and consumer sectors (50% of the total agreements).
Given that the active operators are more interested in acquiring the majority of the company, for both countries the goal is to favor "minority" operations, so as to increase the flow of investments and promote partnership building.
"To further enhance this growth, it is necessary to develop a clear vision, aimed on the one hand at welcoming an ever-increasing number of American investors in Italy and on the other to further encourage and support our companies in the acquisition of strategic assets in the United States". commented Simone Crolla, Chief Executive Officer of AmCham Italy.
