PER UN RAFFORZAMENTO PATRIMONIALE DELLE IMPRESE ITALIANE: ANALISI E PROPOSTE

The issue of the under-capitalization of Italian companies and the potential to tap into the national savings pool of institutional investors to support the “real economy” has been to the attention of policy makers for some time. The need for a more equitized capital structure of SMEs has become even more important following the increasing relevance of intangibles (human capital, R&D, brands, etc) in driving economic growth and productivity and above all, the negative economic effects of Covid 19. Supranational and national government and central bank extraordinary support measures have mitigated the negative impacts of the pandemic on firms, households and banks. The gradual unplugging of this support and the arising issues of i. perspective rapid rise in NPLs and ii. zombie firms call for innovative policy responses to favor the transition to good private and public investments in the context of the NGEU. With specific reference to Italy, the Authors develop a scheme for recapitalization of SMEs focused on private equity instruments and on the full cooperation of institutional savers, with appropriate regulatory changes. The reference framework is based on the intertwining of competitive complementarity, rather than contrast, between capital markets / private equity and banks. The proposals presented are differentiated as a function of company size and make the case for a strong cooperation, but well-defined roles, between private and government entities and funding.