by Stefano Vaccara
SAN FRANCISCO (UNITED STATES) (ITALPRESS) – Bringing small and medium-sized Italian companies to the most competitive markets in the world means helping them grow, find partners and capital, but also preparing them to confront themselves from a strong position with much larger groups, avoiding their technological and industrial heritage to be dispersed. It is one of the themes that emerged in the meeting in San Francisco with Stefano Barrese, head of the Banca dei Territori Division of Intesa Sanpaolo, during the mission that accompanied 12 Italian aerospace and Space Economy SMEs in the Silicon Valley.
A mission realized together with INNOVIT and built not only around meetings with potential American partners and investors, but also in comparison with the world of research and innovation of universities in Berkeley and Stanford.
“We have always been a reference for SMEs and we are also a reference for the aerospace industry,” explained Barrese. Since 2020, Intesa Sanpaolo has contributed to the small and medium-sized enterprises over 141 billion euros of credit, of which 12 billion euros for internationalization and export and 14 billion for extraordinary finance operations, including acquisitions, mergers and capital openings.
But the opening to the capital and the entry into the American market pose a delicate question. Italpress asked Barrese if relatively small Italian companies, but owners of very advanced technologies, do not risk becoming particularly attractive prey for American giants with enormously superior financial availability. In other words: taking them to America to grow them does not even mean exposing them at the risk of “big fish eating small fish”?
It is a concern that recalls what happened in the past to many Italian excellences ended under the control of foreign groups. In the reasoning developed by Barrese, however, it is here that the work of preparation of the bank takes importance. The goal is not simply to put an entrepreneur in front of an investor, but to strengthen the enterprise before that confrontation, to help her understand the value of her technology and to assess with greater awareness the different possibilities: industrial partnerships, capital entrance, international growth or any extraordinary operations.
Internationalizing, therefore, does not necessarily mean selling. The question is to arrive at the table in the best conditions to choose and not to “sold” the value built in Italy. It is a concept consistent with Barrese’s strategy: “Our role is to identify with them new opportunities to grow abroad and create new tools to support them in industrial projects, in partnerships with new investors.”.
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A second question emerged in comparison with Italpress: the American political risk. In a phase of strong geopolitical and commercial uncertainty, how much must it weigh in the decisions of a small Italian company that wants to invest in the United States?
Barrese showed on this point a substantial confidence in the American system’s holding capacity. The U.S., observed during the meeting, were repeatedly considered in decline or “dati per spacciati”, but continued to demonstrate a remarkable ability to reaction. Above all, it is difficult to compare with other markets the depth of the American financial system, from the Stock Exchange to the amount of capital available to finance innovation, enterprises and growth.
The risk is therefore known and evaluated, but Barrese does not cancel the political opportunities offered by the United States. And it is precisely the combination of innovation, market and availability of capital that continues to make America a fundamental destination for Italian companies with global ambitions.
The strategy, however, will not stop at Silicon Valley. Barrese has announced new missions in the United States but also in Mercosur, while Intesa Sanpaolo is working on partnerships with important banking operators in other geographies, including India and Brazil, to offer Italian companies a banking channel in the markets they intend to develop.
The guiding thread remains the same: bringing SMEs where capital, technology and opportunities are found, but preparing them well enough to grow without losing the industrial value that makes them Italian.
– photo xo9/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
