Study of Unimpresa association on the possession of Italian companies. Less than half of the shares of companies on the financial lists – whose value has plummeted by 100 billion over the 12 months – is held by foreign entities.
Secretary General Lauro:
risk of barbarian raids and definitive decline of Italy
The value of Italian listed companies falls: in one year, capitalization has fallen by over 100 billion euros. And the shares held by foreign companies in the stock exchange remain below the 50% threshold. The total capitalization of listed companies in our country fell, from 2019 to 2020, from 506 billion to 404 billion euro and during this period the “withdrawal” by foreign subjects continued: they had over 51% of Piazza Affari in June 2015 (282 billion), they fell to 48% in March 2019 (246 billion) and then again dropped to 47% in last March (192 billion).
The Italian business system remains family-run: the overall shares of the joint-stock companies, whose value has fallen by 234 billion to 2,060 billion in 12 months, are mostly in the hands of families with 36% of the total, followed by the 25% in the hands of foreigners, 15% in the hands of companies and 12% of banks. These are the main data of a report by the Unimpresa Study Center, according to which, from the first quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020, joint-stock companies have seen their value drop by over 234 billion euros, while the “listed” companies have seen a drop of Their capitalization is 101 billion.
The sharp drop in the overall value of our listed companies can represent, for foreign predators, the opportunity for purchases at particularly advantageous prices. The advance of foreign funds within our borders, if done for purely speculative purposes, is however a danger for our country-system and for Made in Italy. In fact, we would need stable investments, made for long-term prospects, capable of giving impetus to our economy. On the contrary, we run the risk of witnessing unarmed raids by “barbarians” and the definitive decline of Italy
comments the General Secretary of Unimpresa, Raffaele Lauro.
The association’s study is based on data from the Bank of Italy updated to the first quarter of 2020 and cross-references the data relating to the book value of the shares – listed and unlisted – held by all economic entities operating in our country: businesses, banks , insurance and pension funds, central government, local authorities, social security institutions, families, foreign investors. The data compares the values recorded in the first quarter of 2019 and those of the first quarter of 2020. According to the analysis, as regards the entire universe of public limited companies in our country, the largest share is in the hands of families: decreasing to 36.55% at the beginning of 2020 compared to 38.13% in 2019. In the special ranking, foreigners follow with 25.21% (it was 24.57%), businesses with 15.67% (it was 15, 37%), banks with 12.08% (it was 13.24%) and the state with 5.17% (it was 4.68%), insurance companies and pension funds with 2.90% (it was 2.58%); minority shares are attributable to local administrations (stable around 0.61% from 0.56%) and to social security institutions (from 0.88% to 1.08%).
Overall, the value of joint-stock companies decreased, from the first quarter of 2019 to the first quarter of 2020, by 10.22%, with a drop of 234.5 billion, falling from 2,295.3 billion in 2019 to 2,060.7 billion of this year. Negative balance for families, which lost value of 122.03 billion (-13.94%) from 875.1 billion to 753.1 billion. Negative balance (-44.2 billion with a drop of 7.68%) also for foreign investors: they had shares that were worth 563.8 billion in 2019 and are now worth 519.5 billion. Here are the results for the other categories of shareholders: the banks saw the value of their holdings drop by 40.1 billion (-13.20%) from 303.9 billion to 263.8 billion; insurance companies and pension funds recorded “capital gains” of 680 million (+ 1.15%) from 59.1 billion to 59.8 billion. Negative changes, however, for the shares of companies, which have 29.7 billion less (-8.44%) from 352.7 billion to 322.9 billion. “Balance sheet” in surplus for the participations of the social security institutions, which increased by 2.2 billion from 20.09 billion to 22.2 billion. Negative balance instead for both those of the central state, which decreased by 865 million (-0.81%) from 107.4 billion to 106.5 billion, and for those of local authorities, which fell by 391 million (-3.02%) stable at just over 12.5 billion.
As for the joint-stock companies present in Piazza Affari, the overall value plummeted by 101.5 billion (-20.07%), from 506.1 billion in 2019 to 404.5 billion in 2020. The primacy in share ownership despite the drop, it is up to foreign investors who hold 47.69% of the shares, a sharp decrease from 51.74% in 2015 and a decrease also compared to 48.69% in 2019. In the special ranking, companies follow with 26 , 96% (it was 25.37% in 2019), banks with 10.87% (it was 10.51%), families with 7.59% (it was 9.37%), the state with 5.39% (it was 4.48%), insurance companies and pension funds with 0.81% (it was 0.75%); minority interests are attributable to local administrations (0.58%) and social security institutions (0.10%).
Foreign shareholders “lost” or “sold” 53.5 billion (-21.71%) from 246.4 billion to 192.9 billion, businesses have 19.3 billion less (-15.06%) from 128.4 billion to 109.07 billion, while families lost 16.6 billion (-35.21%) from 47.4 billion to 30.7 billion. Negative balance, then, also for banks with a drop in listed spa shares of 9.2 billion (-17.38%) from 53.2 billion to 43.9 billion. Insurance and pension fund shares fell by 520 million (-13.64%) from 3.8 billion to 3.2 billion. The shares held by the central government fell by 864 million (-3.81%); negative change also for those of local administrations, which fell by 1.1 billion (-33.63%) from 3.5 billion to 2.3 billion; the balance was also negative for portions of social security institutions, which decreased by 234 million (-37.08%) from 631 million to 397 million.
