Global Insight | April 2018

New incentives gives AIM Italia a boost

The Italian Government has adopted a number of measures aimed at doubling the size of AIM Italia over the next five years.

AIM Italia is the Borsa Italia’s market dedicated to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with high growth potential.

The market offers high visibility at an international level and a flexible admission process. In terms of market capitalisation,the key industries represented on AIM Italia are energy and cleantech, manufacturing, financial services and investment companies, IT, digital and media. Agrifood, IT, digital & media companies have attracted the most investment.

Individual Saving Plans

Italy’s 2017 Budget introduced long-term Individual Savings Plans (Piani Individuali di Risparmio (PIR)), which benefit from tax incentives, encouraging savers to invest in Italian SMEs. The aim is to channel household savings towards productive investments to help grow the Italian entrepreneurial market.

PIRs can be sold as mutual funds, discretionary accounts, life policies or security deposit accounts carrying full exemption from 26% income tax if investors hold the investment for at least five years. Global Insight April 2018 | 14 Retail investors resident in Italy can invest a maximum of €30,000 per year and up to €150,000 over five years in PIRs. As a result of PIRs, almost €2bn of new investment is expected in SMEs listed on AIM Italia over the next three years.

New tax credit incentive

On 1 January 2018,the Government introduced an additional tax incentive for SMEs planning to list on AIM Italia. SMEs with turnover of between €2m and €50m will be granted €500,000 in the form of tax credits. This is expected to reduce the cost of listing on AIM Italia by 5% to 6%. Savings can be used by SMEs to support their growth and improve governance and transparency.

These incentives may enable well-performing SMEs to obtain a competitive advantage on an international level and help them to attractlocal and international institutional investors.