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Borsa Italiana (Milan stock exchange) has developed a series of creative initiatives to improve investment environment in Italy, the primary markets continental Europe head at the London Stock Exchange Group, Luca Peyrano, said here on Wednesday.
In an art initiative launched recently and named Finance for Fine Arts, the Milan stock exchange joined hands with the Brera Art Gallery in Milan, which contains one of the foremost collections of paintings in Italy, to encourage companies to finance the restoration of 10 valuable artworks.
"Three companies have already adhered and another one is likely to adhere soon," Peyrano told journalists in a meeting at the Milan Foreign Press Association. The three "adopted" paintings are by Pablo Picasso, Dosso Dossi and Carlo Dolci.
"Each restoration is worth 15,000-35,000 euros (18,649-43,516 U. S. dollars), very little money if we consider the big image return, " the expert said. Moreover, these patrons will be able to use the images of the paintings for their corporate communication campaigns over the next two years, he added.
In this way, Peyrano stressed, Italy's art patrimony, too often left abandoned in the many museums of the country, can be better preserved and also become an economic flywheel. There are more than 100,000 artworks awaiting for restoration and visibility in Italy, he noted.
In fact art is just one of the numerous elements that make Italy "an extraordinary country where to invest," Peyrano pointed out. Though heavy bureaucracy and slow-moving justice have discouraged many foreign investors from coming to Italy, there is plenty of opportunities to track down, he said.
For example, when thinking of Italy's principal industrial sectors, what comes into mind is often fashion, design and food. "But machinery and automation make the true bone structure of the Italian economy," Peyrano underlined.
The expert cited some "niche sectors" such as packaging, machine tools, wiring and oil drilling which are less visible being controlled by small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs), but have a very solid tradition thus an important weight in the country's industrial system.
"I would suggest that foreign investors look at these niches carefully," Peyrano highlighted. He also told Xinhua that Chinese investors are particularly suitable to invest in long-term projects. They reason with far-reaching view and share important common points with Italian players, he said.
In his view, there are many opportunities to be seized also in the infrastructural field, especially regarding ports, given Italy' s strategic location.
To help SMEs tap capital markets and eventually list their shares, Borsa Italiana - which is part of the London Stock Exchange Group - has created Elite, a platform of integrated services to enhance industrial, financial and organizational skills.
The program, first launched in 2012, is making progress. The number of participating companies both in Italy and in the UK has risen to 209. The 176 Italian companies have average annual revenues of 124 million euros.
However, according to Peyrano there are more than 1,000 companies in Italy with a potential to list they shares, and 300 which may realistically do it within the next five years.
What characterizes Borsa Italiana compared to other European stock exchanges, besides lower transactions costs and higher turnover velocity (which means high liquidity) and a very high number (around 97 percent) of foreign institutional investors, is its luxury appeal, he said.
Peyrano explained that Borsa Italiana over the past four years has attracted 60 percent of listings of luxury companies in Europe, positioning itself as a hub where international companies including big ones as well as SMEs can find themselves in the very heart of luxury. (1 euro = 1.24 U.S. dollars)
