New York, December 4, 2019 – As part of the wider plan to strengthen its business network, Grant Thornton Italy inaugurated today the Italian Business Group in New York, its first desk in the United States. The offices are in Manhattan at the Grant Thornton US headquarters, located at the 4th floor of a building in Midtown, 757 Third Avenue.
“It is – declares Alessandro Dragonetti, Grant Thornton Head of Tax from New York - a real Italian desk, a business bridge between Italy and the United States. The vision and the mission of the initiative are part of a more complex project, which see us involved in strengthening our capacity for action improving the connection between Italy and the United States.
At the opening event of today, besides Alessandro Dragonetti, Luciano Centanni, Grant Thornton US Partner and Director of International Business Centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa was also present.
“Having long-standing collaboration links with a lot of organizations who are interested about the United States scene – explains Alessandro Dragonetti – we decided to accelerate our choice, creating a dynamic and stable bridge between the two countries. From today on, the organisations and the groups who have commercial relationships between this two countries will find in the Italian Business Group a support centre, as well as a propositive consultancy structure.”
In particular, the goals of the opening of the new desk, which will rely also on Grant Thornton Italian professionals in addition to the local ones, are to facilitate the contact with and the assistance to the Italian societies with interests in the USA and vice versa, offering an on-site reference able to understand the needs of the inbound and outbound typologies, as well as to indicate opportunities which should be seized in order to grow. In brief, not only a help desk but especially a propositive and proactive desk.
Carlotta Benedet, the Italian Business Group responsible manager points out: “With the new desk we address the Italian and American multinational companies, the Italian SMEs, the private clients (both Italian and American), the Italians resident in NY. We will follow with interest all the market segments with a special focus on the finance, energy and technology industries. Among the services we can provide, in the foreground there are the addressing, the coordination and the assistance in the tax, advisory and audit fields.
And therefore, a wide evaluation of the implications, the challenges, the opportunities and the benefits linked to the two market settings, from the opening – also through J/V or acquisitions – of businesses in Italy or in the United States, to the assistance in the start of a company in Italy or in the United States.
“If we consider that today we count 5618 United States Societies with qualified Italian members (among them 279 are located in NY) and 2227 Italian societies with qualified United States members (among them 256 are located in NY) it is clear that for a network, involved in an integrated consultancy, it is crucial to offer a specific and accurate service which addresses companies and groups with cross-country interests. In addition to this, it is important to underline the relevance of the business linked to private customers”.