The Italian Government has two important tasks to be accomplished as soon as possible so as not to interrupt the work done in support of the development of the Italian venture capital market on the one hand and to prevent the crisis of companies on the other hand. Let’s hope then that the palace quarrels do not divert too much from practical matters of crucial interest to companies.
On the first front, in fact, just a few days ago the Undersecretary for Economic Development, Alessandra Todde, responding to a question during a hearing at the Commission for Production Activities of the Deputy Chamber, specified that for the Fondo Nazionale Innovazione to be operative “the adoption of the Fund’s operating regulations is needed, which will be prepared by the asset management company (Invitalia Venture sgr, editor’s note), subject to ministerial approval “(see here a previous article by BeBeez). Fondo Nazionale Innovazione in Italian means National Innovation Fund and is a one billion euros Government-sponsored fund which will invest in venture capital funds and in early stage direct deals. It will be managed by Invitalia Venture sgr, a management company which is 70% owned by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, the Italian National Development Finance Institution.
On the second front, instead, in the next few months the new Corporate Crisis Code, which introduces the so-called alert systems, will be fully operational, requiring companies to equip themselves with self-assessment systems to monitor their default risk. The legislation has entrusted the National Council of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts (CNDCEC) with the elaboration of precise indexes, which reasonably assume the state of crisis of a company. The expected indices are: the ratio between cash flow and total assets (DSCR), the ratio between net assets and total liabilities and the ratio between financial charges and revenues. However, a reference threshold is not provided for each index, which has yet to be identified and will be the object of subsequent implementation decrees. Meanwhile, the CNDCEC published the document on the indexes on October 20th (see the press release here). But now it is necessary for the Italian Economic and Development Ministry (MISE) to adopt these indices by inserting them in a specific implementing decree.
It should be acknowledged, however, that in the meantime, even with a very narrow window of time, the MISE has set up an important incentive to help SMEs to acquire self-assessment systems to monitor their default risk. From 7 November and up to the 27th of this month, SMEs c an complete the application to request the Innovation Manager voucher made available by the MISE as a contribution to the costs that companies will incur, if will decide to rely on the advice of an Innovation Manager, who will accompany them in their projects of technological and digital transformation, but also to modernize the processes, including access to financial and capital markets and use of finance as an alternative to the classic banking sector. This also includes predictive software tools to allow entrepreneurs, administrators and control bodies to grasp the anticipatory signs of the crisis in order to promptly entrust the company to expert care.
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