Out of these, a small group of 600 companies generates alone an overall turnover of 44 billion euros; we are talking about the “Champions”, the Italian SMEs rewarded for the outstanding growth and profitability rates, as well as for the capital strength and financial independence.

They have coped with the economic downturn with investment campaigns, growing on average by 10,67% a year and with profits close to 19% of sales. Together they represent the first manufacturing group in Italy.

For the second year modefinance participated in the survey realized by the magazines “L’Economia” and “Italypost”. The selection process was carried out by corporate finance experts of the financial consultancy Special Affairs and modefinance’s rating analysts, who applied the creditworthiness assessment methodology MORE to evaluate the companies’ financial balance. The methodology is the same used by s-peek to calculate the companies’ credit score.

The analysis focused on the financial statement and profitability ratios as well as on companies’ governance, development and investment strategies. 500 SMEs with a turnover between 20 and 120 million euros were selected, along with 100 companies with revenues between 120 and 500 million euros. They are small companies, mostly if compared with the European average, even though they employed over 160 thousand people and contribute 2% to the country’s GDP.

“Multinational pocket companies”as well defined by Raffaela Polato.

Growth factors

The MORE Score distribution is clear: only 8,67% of the selected companies got the top grade (AAA), while the highest percentage (33,83%) belongs to the score class A.

The outcomes show that a healthy economic and financial framework is essential against the market’s turmoil, yet it cannot guarantee the company’s long-term prosperity.

Elevated growth and profitability rates can be reached only by investing profits in the company’s development and with a balanced management of the credit resources, including the alternative finance channels (like mini-bond or peer-to-peer lending), together with export- oriented strategies and acquisition campaigns. Such elements are common among the "Champions" and allowed them to achieve better results if compared both with the reference sector and the entire sample of the companies analyzed.

Click here for the "Top 500" list (20 - 120 million turnover)
Click here for the "Top 100" list (20 - 500 million turnover)