To the U.S.

The U.S. market is strategic for Italian SMEs and start-ups. Synergo believes that supporting SMEs and innovative start-ups with the right mix of capital and operational support will be fundamental to bring them to their full growth potential both in Italy and the U.S..

Trade Relations between Italy and U.S.

The United States hosts the most developed, liquid, flexible and efficient business and financial markets in the world and offers the largest consumer market on earth with a GDP of $ 20 trillion and 330 million people. A business-friendly environment and leading technology, supply chain, infrastructure and workforce are factors that allow businesses from all countries and industries to thrive in the United States.

U.S. represents the third market for Italian exports, with a value of $ 57 billion in 2019 (9,2% on total). Italy also runs a substantial trade surplus with respect to the U.S., amounting to € 33 billlion.

This strong trade is also accompanied by the substantial increase of Italian FDI in the U.S. (+373% between 2003 and 2019), a sign of the international growth of the Italian companies in the U.S., thanks to a political and economic stability, a friendly business environment, a mature and high-demand market, very well-positioned to meet the Italian companies’ offer.

US and Italian FDI (ref: Bureau of Economic Analysis)

Nevertheless, we believe that the full capacity of Italian FDI in the U.S. is not yet fully expressed.

Despite the excellence characterizing Italian manufacturing companies, many of them approach a mature and complex market, such as the U.S:, underestimating its difficulties, without a strategic growth plan consistent with the financial and human resources, necessary to establish a structured and stable presence andto create long-term value.

In the overall European FDI rankings in the U.S., Italy ranks lower than other European countries, highlighting a great room for improvement.

Europe in U.S. investment radar (source: Bureau of Economic Analysis)

According to the Italian Trade Agency, there are around 3,000 Italian companies operating in the US.

Italian companies in the U.S. market by sector (source: Italian Trade Agency 2019)

Italian investments in the U.S. market by deal type (source: Italian Trade Agency 2019)

M&A activity between Italy and U.S.

We believe that Synergo’s support is essential in order to encourage the development of Italian SMEs a through strategic and effective growth plans in the U.S. market

In the last 5 years (2015-2019), the M&A activity between Italy and U.S. has represented a significant share of the total Italian M&A, both in terms of value and number of transactions. Outbound deals Italy / U.S. represented 16% of the total outbound transactions in 2019 made by Italian companies. These results are remarkable but there is a great market opportunity still to be exploited.

2013-2019 inbound and outbound transactions between Italy and U.S. (source: Mergermarket)

• +373% direct investment (FDI) in U.S. between 2003 and 2019
• 43% Italian investment by M&A and Joint Venture
• 38% with a new organization (U.S. Greenfield)
• 19% thanks to the development of existing facilities (U.S. Brownfield)
• +3,000 Italian companies in U.S.

The relationship between Italy and U.S.:

Synergo believes that the Italy – U.S. relationship should be put on the top of the Italian priorities agenda in order to allow Italian SME’s to fully exploit the growth potential deriving from this interconnection.

For this reason we have launched the first Italian transatlantic fund (Sinergia III), specialized in the growth and creation of long term value for our SMEs in the U.S. and a new late stage venture capital fund for innovative Italian SMEs (Sinergia Venture Fund), specialized in supporting Italian start-ups in their international development pattern to the U.S.

Thanks to our significant experience in the U.S., Synergo will be partnering with ambitious entrepreneurs willing to increase the value and size of their companies, by offering strategic, operational and financial support in order to exploit the great opportunities offered by the U.S. market.