Intesa Sanpaolo for agribusiness in Lombardy:

considerations and tools for development

 

·         150 million euro in two months to support 370 agricultural and agro-industrial businesses in Lombardy; one billion euro expected by the end of 2016.

 

·         Today in Cremona the Bank meets the operators of the main productive chains of Lombardy: milk, meat, rice and wine; case histories from Berlucchi, Latteria Sociale Mantova, Levoni, Riso Gallo, MTV and enterprises such as Cortegrande, Croci, Della Bona and Gritti.

 

·         A chance to meet representatives of Intesa Sanpaolo, the reference bank in Lombardy for this sector.

 

Costa Sant’Abramo (Cr), 10 March 2016 – Intesa Sanpaolo meets today in Cremona the operators of the agricultural and agro-industrial sector of Lombardy, at a meeting aptly named “Agriculture in Lombardy. Growth opportunities and perspectives” promoted by Paolo Graziano, Manager of the Lombardy Regional Governance Centre of Intesa Sanpaolo, who will be chairing a debate with the guests, intended to foster the collaboration and development of a driving sector for the Region, describing emblematic cases.

 

On behalf of the Bank, the following representatives will attend: Fabrizio Guelpa, Head of Industry & Banking of the Study and Research Department, who will highlight the main productive chains in the agribusiness sector in Lombardy; Andrea Lecce, Head of Marketing who, together with Stefano Martarelli, Head of the Credit Department of the Banca dei Territori Division, will be focussing on opportunities and solutions to support growth. The final remarks will be delivered by Stefano Barrese, Head of the Banca dei Territori Division.

 

A round table will host the most remarkable case histories of Lombard entrepreneurs representing the four main productive chains in Lombardy from agriculture to agroindustry: Latteria Sociale of Mantua and the agricultural businesses of Bruno and Alfio Gritti of Bergamo and Della Bona Faustino and C. of Cremona as far as the milk chain is concerned; Levoni and the Croci agricultural company of Mantua for the meat chain, Riso Gallo from Pavia and the agricultural company Cortegrande of Mantua for the rice chain, and Guido Berlucchi of Brescia for the wine chain, accompanied by a speech by Carlo Pietrasanta, wine producer and MTV (Wine Tourism Association) president.

 

Today’s meeting is a considerable opportunity to deepen the proposals offered by Intesa Sanpaolo that, with more than 150 million euro in only two months in favour of 370 sector operators in Lombardy, is the reference bank in Lombardy to support and foster agro-industrial, agricultural and agro-food enterprises, in Italy and abroad, where the Group is able to help them in 40 countries.

 

With “Programma Filiere”, developed by Intesa Sanpaolo in July 2015, a new model of collaboration between banks and businesses was created, with the aim of encouraging the growth of production chains of excellence in the Italian entrepreneurial system by improving credit access conditions and defining a range of custom financing products for companies with production-related dealings.

Thanks to this programme, today 9 agro-food chains are active in Lombardy, involving almost 200 companies of various sizes in their capacities as suppliers, with potential overall financing accounting for 500 million euro.

 

Furthermore, Intesa Sanpaolo applies an important financial measure in favour of those companies resorting to the so called 140% super-depreciation (the new measure introduced by the government for investments in new tangible assets), thus offering medium and long term financing up to 100% of the amount, with a further line of credit up to 40% to meet the short-term liquidity needs resulting from the growth generated by the investment.

 

 

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“Today’s task for the Bank is to identify new areas of action and a new approach with the world of agriculture and agro-industry from a wider and development perspective – commented Paolo Graziano, Manager of the Lombardy Regional Governance Centre of Intesa Sanpaolo.

“Only by joining our financial competences in the daily operators’ activity of the Lombard agribusiness we can further enhance our bond with it and continue being the reference bank. With a view to understanding the real needs of the sector and generate tangible benefits for workers, entrepreneurs and companies, the Bank, first and foremost, is to devise a proposal not only from a financial point of view, but also from a training and market guidance viewpoint.”

 

“Agriculture is vital for the growth of our country and it is key for the first Italian Bank to support the entire agribusiness sector with tangible initiatives, such as the Programma filiere, the participation in Expo 2015 together with hundreds of small and large enterprises in our exhibition area and the recent agreement with the government which sees the allocation of six billion euro in a three-year period for the sector”, declared Stefano Barrese, Head of the Banca dei Territori Division of Intesa Sanpaolo.

“The sector excitement is clearly visible in the professional interest it generates among youngsters and Intesa Sanpaolo, in its role as bank supporting the real economy, aims to participate in all the good proposals inspired to growth, innovation, internationalisation, training and generational change even in the agribusiness sector”.