To favor companies' access to the market for the direct collection of financial resources, with particular attention to those companies that intend, in the context of growth and / or internationalization programs, to use solutions that diversify their financial structure and get in touch with a wider audience of financial operators. This, in short, is the objective of the agreement signed today by the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and by Anima Confindustria Meccanica Varia.
The agreement aims to identify specific financial solutions to be made available to the companies associated with Anima - which represents companies in Italy with a total turnover of 44,7 billion and 210 thousand employees - to support the investments required in the sector. For the banks, which act as consultants and manage the organization of placements, the initiative is at the same time a further step towards an expansion of the financial solutions offered to the productive world in continuity with placements already carried out on the capital market.
The first result of the agreement signed today will be the preparation, as part of an inter-association working group to be set up, of a feasibility analysis of the so-called 'supply chain bonds', a specific tool aimed in particular at thousands of SMEs - in many real cases of Made in Italy excellence - which play a decisive role in the production chain they are part of but which, due to size and economic results, are unable to access capital markets or use them without being given creditworthiness adequate.
The analysis therefore intends to verify whether, through an adequate structuring of the transaction, the creditworthiness of the companies belonging to the supply chain can benefit from the effects deriving from a synergistic and continuous relationship with the so-called lead company, subject with significant market and competitive positioning. and of high financial standing. Specifically, it is a question of identifying and analyzing a series of data from a supply chain (for example, the scope of activities, the companies involved, the shared or shared supply chain plan, the economic and financial results of the individual company), then proposing a structure , with related credit enhancement schemes, which can be financed on the market: it is hoped that the case study will become a precedent for similar market transactions.
“We are delighted - commented Giovanni Sabatini, ABI Director General - to be able to contribute, in a phase of growth of the Italian economy, to increase the financing solutions for companies that provide for direct recourse to the debt market. This financial channel, which is increasingly central to banks in the business segment, can represent an optimal solution for financing structures such as supply chain bonds that combine the presence of leading companies and that of excellent but small companies with minor possibility of access to the financial market ".
“The 4.0 Business Plan - declared Andrea Orlando, General Manager of Anima - has highlighted important indicators. Businesses are ready to invest. The data processed by the Anima Studies Office under the item investments show very positive figures to two decimal places. Entrepreneurs, if and when put in a position, expand production lines, enter new foreign markets, give impetus to research and innovation departments. The agreement with ABI can contribute, through tailor-made financial instruments, to this goal: to give a new lifeblood to the Italian entrepreneurial fabric and in particular to mechanics, so that the positive start of 2017 and the beginning of 2018 is confirmed and can accelerate the whole country ".