The Northwest quadrant is ready to restart from financial innovation. After difficult months due to the pandemic, Piedmont, Liguria and Valle d’Aosta are about to embrace the entry into the capital market by small and medium-sized enterprises. With particular attention to minibonds, ad hoc tools for collecting resources. Which were a major crutch during the first 18 months of the pandemic.
In addition to the giants there is more. But above all, the change of pace in the use of the capital market is starting to become more and more relevant. And not only for the big names in the Northwestern banking industry, such as Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca del Piemonte, Banca di Asti, Banca d’Alba. Who have already been active for some time with ad hoc initiatives to support the territory, therefore businesses and families. And not only the large industrial groups, which are already well underway with ordinary placements. What is certain is that the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr) could be functional to facilitate new opportunities.
Observing the single Piedmont, from the data of the SME Observatory of the Industrial Union of Turin, a more dynamic picture emerges than observed a few years ago. From 1 January 2021 to 30 June 2021 alone, 6 minibonds were listed on the ExtraMot Pro market compared to 10 in the same period in 2020. The total amount of issues in the first half of 2021 is € 28.2 million. But if you look at the first 18 months of the pandemic, it emerges that the total issues on this segment were 28, with an average interest rate of 4.6%, a total amount of 164 million euros and an average amount of 5.8. millions.
Even better was the Piedmontese market for private placement, private issues. Still in the same period, January 2020-June 2021, there were 71 placements, with an average rate of 4.7%, a maximum amount of 265 million euros and an average of 3.7 million.
Among the broadcasters, the offices are mainly located in Turin and its province: 61% of cases. Among those who have adopted these tools, we find Asja Ambiente, Geodata, Olsa, Rapetti Food Service, Prima Industrie, Boni, Essepi Ingegneria and the Centrale del latte d’Italia. One of the latest transactions is at the end of the year, with UniCredit subscribing to a 1.5 million euro minibond issued by LMM Logistics of Turin, a logistics operator specializing in services for the food, retail and large-scale distribution sectors.
«The minibond tool – said Paola Garibotti, UniCredit North West Regional Manager – is very important for us, as it allows us to support Italian SMEs for their growth projects. In this phase of restarting the country, we want to use all our tools to concretely support entrepreneurs. This type of fund is in addition to our traditional support activity for the real economy.
In Piedmont we recently reached the milestone of 100 companies supported with minibonds, confirming our leadership in Italy in the process of opening SMEs to the capital market ».
More distant Liguria, but in the last year interesting initiatives have taken place that can be functional in expanding the audience of companies that look to the capital market. Last summer UniCredit subscribed to a 4 million euro minibond issued by Fratelli Carli, a historic Ligurian oil company. But there were also other operations.
Attilio Carmagnani AC spa issued its first 500,000 short-term minibond in July as part of the Frigiolini & Partners Merchant’s “Master for serial broadcasters” project. And on the same platform, in mid-December Aifar spa, a company producing chemical preparations for agriculture based in Ronco Scrivia (Genoa), issued its first short-term minibond for around 300 thousand euros.
In recent years, despite a thinner market, the contribution of Valle d’Aosta has not been lacking either. Which, in 2019, was the protagonist with Cogne Acciai Speciali, the issuer of a 15 million euro minibond. And that through the PNRR it could find new life.
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