Sante Maiolica, CEO of Grant Thornton Financial Advisory Services, has been interviewed on the situation of the Italian mid-market: “The number of M&A deals in the Italian mid-market peaked in June, reconfirming the positive trend recorded since the beginning of the year. A key driver behind this result is the termination of the useful period for the revaluation of participating interests held in joint-stock companies”.
“The aggregate number of medium-small deals, anyway,” continues Maiolica “amounts to 225, down by almost 30% compared to the same period of the previous year.
This contrasts with the overall Italian market, which on the contrary shows an increase in the number of deals. This phenomenon is a further indicator of a slowdown in our economy, which underlines the increased difficulties faced by Italian small-medium companies when dealing with the domestic economic and political situation, currently uncertain and unstable.
A marked drop in the so-called trade sale operations also needs to be underlined, which decreased from 76% in 2018 to 56% in 2019. Funds, on the contrary, continue with their acquisitions, driven by low interest rates and, of course, the abundance of liquid funds available”.