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“Equity and Debt Investments in Italy”: fifth edition of the seminar co-organised by the Embassy of Italy in London and Legance – Avvocati Associati

London, 26 February 2018 – The fifth annual Equity and Debt Investments in Italy seminar was held at the Embassy of Italy yesterday, co-organised by the embassy and the law firm Legance Avvocati Associati and sponsored by the Italian Ministry for Economic Development. The event was attended by about 200 investors and City operators.

It opened with speeches by the ambassador, Raffaele Trombetta, and by Filippo Troisi, the founding and senior partner of Legance.

The ambassador observed that the event signalled renewed trust in Italy among the financial markets. Now that concerns about the banking system have been relegated to the past, he said, markets and investors see Italy as a place of opportunity, with a dynamic and growing productive sector. The regulatory system and structural reforms have laid the foundations for structural growth that will lay to rest any remaining misgivings about Italy.

Filippo Troisi said that the extraordinary success of this fifth edition of the seminar was cause for great pride and was testament to considerable interest in Italy among international investors.

The first panel discussion was entitled “Investing in Italian financial institutions and/or NPLs versus investing in other sectors, with panellists Salvatore delle Cave of GWM Capital Advisors; Francesco Colasanti, the MD of Fortress; Fabio Longo, the MD of Bain; Andrea Moneta of Apollo Global management; Paolo Petrignani, the CEO of Quaestio Capital Management; Tareck Safi, the executive VP of Pimco and Luigi Sbrozzi, the MD of Centerbridge, in conversation with Bruno Bartocci of Legance and Simon Nixon of the Wall Street Journal.

The second panel, moderated by Marco Gubitosi, the London Office Managing Partner of Legance, together with Marco Ferrando of Il Sole 24 ore, was entitled “From recovery to growth, the 2018 outlook: aligning public and foreign long-term investments and fostering the development and integration of the Italian financial and banking system”. The panellistsincluded Professor Francesca Cornelli of the London Business School; Alfredo De Falco of Unicredit; Fabio Gallia, the CEO of Cassa Depositi and Presiti; Fabio Galli, the director general of Assogestioni; Matteo Laterza, the director general of Unipol Assicurazioni; Mauro Micillo of Intesa Sanpaolo and Andrea Munari, the CEO of BNL.

From the discussions it was clear that the Italian economy is in good shape, closing 2017 with exports at the highest levels in recent years and GDP growing appreciably. Alfredo De Falco, the head of Unicredit’s investment banking activities for Italy, said that in order to consolidate and boost this progress, Italian businesses must constantly pursue growth, either organically or through acquisitions, and that current market conditions are singularly favourable, thanks to tax incentives for investments and interest rates at a historic low. He noted that, as a pan-European bank with an international presence, Unicredit has a role to play in helping businesses access capital markets, backing up traditional banking credit with greater use of debt and equity instruments in order to achieve a better balance of funding sources.

The third panel,“Long term equity investments: market opportunities in all sectors, challenges and lessons learned”, was moderated by Valentina Romei of the Financial Times and Bruno Bartocci of Legance, and the panellists included Giancarlo Aliberti of Apax; Roberto Biondi of Permira; Fabio Canè, the MD of Neuberger Berman and partner at Renaissance Partners; Nico Iacuzzi, the MD of Change Capital Partners; Giampiero Mazza of CVC Capital Partners; Vittorio Pignatti Morano, co-founder and chairman of Trilantic Europe and Giuseppe Prestia of Charterhouse.

The seminar ended with reflections by Carmine Di Noia, the commissioner of CONSOB, the Italian Companies and Stock Exchange Commission, and Fabrizio Pagani, the head of the Technical Secretariat at the Italian Ministry of the Economy and Finance. Di Noia noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Draghi law, which revised financial regulations in Italy, and commented on the growing interest in the Italian market among foreign investors. Pagani highlighted the positive results of the reforms implemented over the last few years. He also pointed out that financial operators are showing a growing interest in Milan, as evidenced by the recent decisions by a number of American banks to relocate some of their activities there: the first concrete results of the work done by the Milan European Financial Hub Committee and the incentives introduced to attract talent.

For further information please contact stampa.amblondra@esteri.it 

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