Italy’s small defense firms ride high amid military spending boon

ROME — Italy’s small, family-owned defense companies are more profitable and are growing faster than the country’s massive state-run firms or the foreign players in the Italian market, a new report has revealed.

Family-run firms have long been the backbone of Italian capitalism, pushing the country to become the eighth biggest manufacturing power in the world, and the report by Italy’s Mediobanca shows they are outperforming in the defense sector.

While accounting for a relatively small chunk of Italy’s defense industry – €6.3 billion ($6.6 billion), or 15.6 percent of sector revenue – medium-sized family firms boasted an Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) margin last year of 12.2 percent, almost double the national average of 6.2 percent, the report said.

Top of the table for EBIT margin, which is a measure of profitability, was small cyber firm DEAS - Difesa e Analisi Sistemi, with a margin of 54 percent.

Boasting a margin of 44.5 percent, second place was taken by GEM Elettronica, a family-controlled company which has operated in the naval electronics sector since 1977 and became the exception that proves the rule when it was taken over by defense giant Leonardo in September.

“Italian family-owned medium-sized enterprises outperformed all the other categories, on the back of their leaner and more flexible operating structures,” the authors of the report claimed.

Family firms also outperformed state firms and foreign-owned firms when it came to growth, notching up 29.2 percent growth in 2023.

“They have bigger margins of growth and by forming part of the supply chain for the bigger firms they allow those firms to have greater flexibility,” said Carlo Festucci, the general secretary of Italian defense industry association AIAD.

“The big firms meanwhile help them secure financing from banks,” he added.

Small firms apart, the Mediobanca report revealed a series of other illuminating stats about the Italian defense industry, including how 36 of the top 100 firms in Italy are foreign owned and make up 25.1 percent of turnover in the sector, while the big, state-owned firms like Leonardo and shipyard Fincantieri contribute 59.3 percent of turnover.

Italy’s top 100 firms are dual use, in that they handle both civil and defense contracts, with only 49 percent of their total €40.7 billion turnover specifically derived from defense contracts - approximately €20 billion.

That figure was up 6.6 percent on 2022 the report noted.

Of the 181,000 employed by the firms, 54,000 are exclusively involved in defense work, it added.

Leonardo generates 75 percent of its turnover from defense while for Fincantieri the figure is 27 percent.

Licenses issued for arms imports by Italy in 2023 totaled €1.25 billion, 40.5 percent of which came from the United States, while licenses for exports reached €6 billion, with France the chief destination on €465.4 million followed by Ukraine on €417 million then the United States on €390 million.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——一份新的报告显示，意大利小型家族式国防公司比该国庞大的国有企业或意大利市场上的外国企业更赚钱，增长速度也更快。

家族企业长期以来一直是意大利资本主义的支柱，推动意大利成为世界第八大制造业强国，意大利Mediobanca的报告显示，它们在国防领域表现优异。

报告称，虽然中型家族企业在意大利国防工业中所占份额相对较小——63亿欧元（66亿美元），或占该行业收入的15.6%——但去年它们的息税前利润率（EBIT利润率）为12.2%，几乎是全国平均水平6.2%的两倍。

衡量盈利能力的 EBIT 利润率排名第一的是小型网络安全公司 DEAS - Difesa e Analisi Sistemi，利润率为 54%。

GEM Elettronica 以 44.5% 的优势位居第二，这是一家家族控股公司，自 1977 年以来一直在海军电子领域运营，并在 9 月份被国防巨头 Leonardo 收购，成为打破常规的例外。

报告作者声称：“意大利家族式中型企业凭借其更精简、更灵活的运营结构，在所有其他类别中表现最佳。”

在增长方面，家族企业也优于国有企业和外资企业，2023 年实现了 29.2% 的增长。

“它们有更大的增长空间，并且通过成为大公司供应链的一部分，使这些公司拥有更大的灵活性，”意大利国防工业协会 AIAD 秘书长 Carlo Festucci 说。

“与此同时，大公司会帮助他们从银行获得融资，”他补充道。

除了小型企业之外，Mediobanca 的报告还揭示了一系列关于意大利国防工业的其他重要数据，包括意大利前 100 家公司中有 36 家是外资企业，占该行业营业额的 25.1%，而像 Leonardo 和 Fincantieri 造船厂这样的大型国有企业则贡献了 59.3% 的营业额。

意大利排名前 100 的公司都是军民两用企业，同时承接民用和国防合同，其 407 亿欧元的总营业额中只有 49% 来自国防合同，约 200 亿欧元。

报告指出，这一数字比 2022 年增长了 6.6%。

报告还指出，这些公司雇佣的 18.1 万名员工中，有 5.4 万名专门从事国防工作。

莱昂纳多队 75% 的失误都源于防守，而芬坎蒂尼队的这一比例为 27%。

2023年意大利发放的武器进口许可证总额为12.5亿欧元，其中40.5%来自美国；而出口许可证总额达到60亿欧元，法国是主要目的地，出口额为4.654亿欧元，其次是乌克兰，出口额为4.17亿欧元，然后是美国，出口额为3.9亿欧元。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。