PRESS RELEASE
The conference “Equity and Debt Investment in Italy”, organised by the Italian Embassy and by Legance – Avvocati Associati law firm, came to a close this afternoon. The event was focused on the Italian financial market and the opportunities it offers for investments and growth.
Ambassador Terracciano opened the conference expressing his optimism for the Italian economic situation: “I am positive about the trend of the Italian market. Data show a growing interest towards Italy. There was a 0.8% growth GDP in 2015 and that figure is expected to increase to more than 1% in 2016, in contrast with the -1.9% registered in 2014. Another encouraging factor has been the increase in M&As in 2015, with a total volume of more than $50bn.
The Ambassador concluded underlining that “the seminar is part of the overall effort (over 35 events from 2014 until now) of the Italian Embassy in London to promote a regular dialogue with the London-based community of financial investors, analysts, practitioners, specialised press on the opportunities in the Italian market.
Italian authorities and experts in the field took turns speaking to an audience of almost 200 people, comprised mostly of investors and representatives of financial institutions.
Giorgio Gobbi – Head of Financial Stability, Bank of Italy – and Fabrizio Pagani – Head of the Office of the Ministry of Economy and Finance – in videoconference, introduced the works of the panels and discussed “The Italian Government Reforms to enhance Foreign Investments, the path ahead and the policy outlook for a country’s steadier growth”, which was moderated by Marco Ferrando, journalist of the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore.
The event continued with 3 round tables: “Consolidation and development of the Italian Banking System: challenges and lessons learned”, “Long term investments: the Italian 2016 path and market opportunities, challenges and lessons learned” and “Equity investments and the opening of the Italian lending market to alternative lenders: challenges and upside on 2016 investments”. Former Italian Finance Ministers Vittorio Grilli and Domenico Siniscalco took part in the panels, together with, amongst others, Massimo Della Ragione (Goldman Sachs), Luigi De Vecchi (Citi), Giuseppe Baldelli (Deutsche Bank).
