MILAN (ITALPRESS) – Intesa Sanpaolo announces the first initiative in 2025 for SMEs looking to expand their business in the United States. The meeting, “USA: Challenges and Opportunities,” dedicated to 800 corporate clients of the Group, is organized in the form of a webinar by Banca dei Territori led by Stefano Barrese and carried out in collaboration with the structures of the IMI Corporate&Investment Banking Division and the Group’s Institutional Affairs and External Communication Government Area.Opening the seminar were speeches by Stefano Barrese and the Consul General of Italy in New York Fabrizio Di Michele, which were followed by those of Lewis Eisenberg, former U.S. Ambassador to Italy, and Regina Corradini D’Arienzo, CEO of Simest. For Intesa Sanpaolo, the voices of Gregorio De Felice, Chief Economist, Paolo Melone Head of Foreign Development and Internationalization, Alberto Mancuso, Executive Director International Network IMI CIB Division, and Nicola Baiocchi Di Silvestri, Country Manager USA & Americas, alternated. Concluding the webinar was the testimony of Milan-based Badinotti Group, which operates in the aquaculture sector internationally, and which Intesa Sanpaolo supported in a major acquisition in the US.After the success of the mission to Silicon Valley promoted in September 2024 by Stefano Barrese’s Banca dei Territori to accompany 12 startups in an exclusive acceleration path thanks to the partnership with INNOVIT, Intesa Sanpaolo extends, also for the current year, the project of overseas promotion of Made in Italy, with the aim of supporting Italian companies that intend to operate in the U.S. market (import-export and investment), as well as attract foreign investment in Italy through synergies with the most important partners and institutional bodies, such as Development Agencies and Banks, Embassies, Consulates, Simest and ICE.The seminar also proceeds in continuity with the previous one, held last October, dedicated to SMEs doing business with the United Arab Emirates, and anticipates a series of other meetings later this year and future missions to facilitate SME growth in markets of interest.”With a solid international presence in about 40 countries and thanks to synergies with our IMI CIB and International Banks Divisions, Intesa Sanpaolo confirms itself as the bank of reference for SMEs wishing to grow and develop in dynamic markets such as the United States,” comments Stefano Barrese, Head of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Banca dei Territori Division. This is a process that we support both for startups and more structured realities, convinced that Italian know-how promoted abroad generates value for the individual company and for the country’s entire economic system, thanks also to the network of our institutional and commercial partners and the strategic activity of the Group’s U.S.-based branch. “Analysis by Intesa Sanpaolo’s Research Department The economic link between Italy and the United States is very strong. In 2023, trade between the two countries touched a record 92.4 billion euros. Notable, in particular, is the contribution of exports, which, rose to 67.2 billion euros, almost triple the values recorded in 2008. Imports also reached a new high point in 2023 (25.2 billion euros), but their growth was less intense, allowing Italy’s trade surplus to rise to 41.9 billion euros (it started from 11.3 billion euros in 2023).Thanks to the leap in Italian exports (+21.6 billion euros between 2019 and 2023, a 47.5 percent progress), the United States has become Italy’s second largest trade outlet, after surpassing France by a large margin. They are now preceded only by Germany and absorb 10.7 percent of Italy’s total exports, a significantly higher percentage than the weight assumed by the United States for the European Union (7.8 percent). The relevance of this market is high for many Italian manufacturing sectors: it is just over 40 percent for shipbuilding and aerospace, stands at 16.4 percent in pharmaceuticals and between 12 percent and 14 percent in furniture, mechanical engineering, construction products and materials, food and beverages, and automotive. All of Italy’s main specialty sectors then register a trade surplus in the United States.During 2024, Italian exports to the United States continued to grow at a fast pace in some sectors, such as pharmaceuticals (+19.5 percent in January-October 2024), food and beverages (+18 percent), and electrical engineering (+12.1 percent). The development was also positive for mechanics, construction products and materials, apparel, wood, paper and rubber and plastic products.On the other hand, the export flows of automotive and shipbuilding (the latter conditioned by multi-year orders), as well as refined petroleum products, suffered a significant setback. Net of these items, Italian exports to the United States grew at a trend rate of 5 percent in the first ten months of 2024.The economic link between Italy and the United States is also evident in terms of corporate relationships: there are about 2,600 U.S.-controlled companies active in Italy, employing more than 350,000 people, nearly 30,000 more than French-controlled companies or nearly 130,000 more than German-controlled companies. In contrast, the United States has about 3,200 Italian-controlled firms employing more than 155,000 people. By number of firms, the United States is by far the leading country for location of Italian subsidiaries abroad.The scenario in which Italian firms will operate in 2025 is particularly uncertain and strongly conditioned by the evolution of the international geopolitical situation, starting with the great discontinuity represented by the election of Donald Trump to a second term in the White House. Many of the measures announced in the election campaign may have a significant impact on the performance of the world economy and the Italian sectors most dependent on foreign demand. It is difficult at this stage to estimate the effects of the measures announced in the election campaign: much will depend on the actual implementation and the ability of the Italian productive fabric to react. If tariffs were to be higher on Chinese products, in the short term there could be advantages for Italian goods on U.S. soil. On the other hand, dollar appreciation since Trump was elected already guarantees greater competitiveness for European goods in the United States. Fundamental will be the strategies adopted by Italian companies, which, as revealed by an internal survey conducted in Intesa Sanpaolo, will look for new customers in other markets, but will also plan to open production and commercial branches in the United States, as well as anticipate deliveries.
– Intesa Sanpaolo press office photo –
(ITALPRESS).
