Foreign acquisitions of Italian medium-sized companies from MNEs

Italy is one of the most attractive European destinations for FDI inflows worldwide. It has witnessed a rapid increase in mergers and acquisitions, to the point of overcoming the EU 15 mean in the years 2008-2013 (with the exception of 2012) (UNCTAD, 2014). The question of whether governments should foster foreign take-overs is crucial, since the Italian economy has been traditionally founded on “national champions”. Purpose of the paper: the work presents a broader research project that aims at investigating (at firms’ level) the performance differences of all the mid-sized foreign-controlled firms, compared with the non acquired firms in the manufacturing industry. Methodology: it analyzes firms acquired in the period between 1999 and 2009 by using data from Mediobanca Research and Studies. Findings: first results in terms of composition of the acquired mid-sized companies are shown. Practical implications: the paper defines the different perspectives of analysis describing the managerial effects of foreign acquisitions on the acquired firms, the MNE acquirers, and the target country with respect to the industrial development, the employment and the supply chains of the territory. Originality of the paper: the study uses Mediobanca Research and Studies database for the first time in order to investigate the topic of cross border acquisitions.