Strategy
The growth of italian companies is the core of our strategy
Italian companies are the fundamental pillar of our strategy. The Industrial Plan for 2019-2021, defines the guidelines for SACE, substantially in continuity with what has been achieved in previous years.
In particular, the Group will continue its path of growth in resources mobilized to support export and internationalization activities of companies, especially SMEs. This objective will be achieved through:
- an improvement in SACE's capacity to intervene in strategic operations for the Country System;
- an increasingly digital, simplified, and innovative commercial proposal to better meet the needs of SMEs;
- a strengthening of the service model dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises that allows for greater penetration of the segment and initiatives to promote and spread the culture of export.
The challenges of 2020 between unprecedented crises and extraordinary tools
During the year, SACE mobilized a total of 46 billion euros in support of Italian companies, including activities in support of export and internationalization, Guarantee Italy and Green New Deal, serving more than 15,000 companies of which over 90% belonging to the SME and MID corporate segment.
Specifically, the resources mobilized in 2020 to support the international projection of Italian companies, traditional operations of SACE, amounted to 25 billion euros, up by 18% compared to the previous year, given that the transactions completed at € 156 billion at 31 December 2020, against approximately 26 thousand active companies.
Starting from April, in order to contain the negative effects on the Italian economy deriving from Covid-19, SACE's mandate to support businesses was strengthened. In particular, the "Liquidity", "Relaunch", "August" and "Simplifications" decrees resulted in an expansion of SACE's operations also on the domestic market. These regulatory interventions made it possible to mobilize resources for 21 billion euros, through the Guarantee Italy instrument, to support the liquidity of Italian companies, and for 300 million euros to support green projects for the Italian energy transition.
Goals that testify to the countercyclical and strategic role of SACE and its subsidiaries in support of the Country System, were achieved by hitting the profitability and economic sustainability targets, with a ROE of 1.7% and a Solvency Ratio of 449 %.
SACE's support has been and will be further strengthened to support Made in Italy in the world even more strongly. So that exports and Made in Italy continue to be the engine of Italy.
Initiatives to support Italian companies
- Supply chain export. The involvement of supply chains can become a key success factor for the internationalization of companies. Among the many initiatives undertaken in this direction, the finalization of agreements dedicated to the supply chains of strategic sectors for the country (oil & gas, electronics, automotive, aeronautics, and shipbuilding, with more than 5,000 companies involved).
- Push Strategy. To improve the positioning of companies in the Global Value Chains, we have launched the Push Strategy program, within which the Group provides important foreign counterparts with medium-long term credit lines with the aim of favoring the assignment of contracts to Italian companies. The program, the result of a new proactive approach to support economic diplomacy, aims to increase export shares in high-potential emerging markets where Made in Italy is currently underrepresented.
- Service model. In continuity with the "one-door" model - launched in 2016 and which led to the establishment of the Group -, a new service model for customers has been implemented, which includes a greater commercial focus of the sales network, the creation of a structure entirely dedicated to SMEs and the establishment of a unique customer care with the aim of simplifying access and contact points.
- Digital agenda. There are 5 services accessible online: subsidized loans, customer reliability assessment, credit insurance, factoring, debt collection. In 2018, two new digital products were presented; Export Up and Company Evaluation.
- Export culture. As provided for by the guidelines of the Plan, in order to promote a more widespread export culture, to increase the number of exporting SMEs, to bring those already active in foreign markets to enhance their operations, Education to Export was launched. The program aims to convey development and international growth opportunities through an offer of specialist content accessible online and offline through training seminars carried out in collaboration with important institutional counterparts.