Enterprises saved by workers, jobs grow in 2023
CFI's resources in the implementation of the Marcora Law in favour of cooperatives rose to 69.1 million. Last year launched the European Small2Big project
4' min read
4' min read
There are two figures that, more than many others, allow us to understand the validity and effectiveness of a legal instrument such as the Marcora law, which since 1986 has helped finance around 600 companies and safeguard and create over 25,000 jobs in Italy, mainly through workers buyout (Wbo) operations, i.e. the acquisition and relaunching of companies in crisis by workers, which in 2023 accounted for 43% of the total interventions (and 58% of the resources disbursed) carried out by CFI-Cooperazione Finanza Imprese, the institutional investor owned and supervised by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, which is also in charge of implementing the Marcora law. The other interventions concern other types of cooperatives, in particular social and labour cooperatives.
These figures are not only the percentage of cooperatives born from Wbo that are successful at least 5 years after start-up (85%), but above all the comparison of the turnover and employment of regenerated companies from 2001 with those of 2022: the total number of workers has grown by 37% (net balance between the numbers of companies that have closed down and those that have been successful), while the value of production has more than doubled.
The Numbers of 2023
."The number of investee companies and investments is growing," explained CFI's president, Mauro Frangi, commenting on the company's 2023 budget, presented in Rome. "The protection of the public capital contributed is also growing, thanks to the collaboration with the European Investment Fund. It grows, thanks to the agreement signed with the EU Commission for the 'Small2Big' project, the possibility of guaranteeing the provision of capital to smaller companies as well'.
The launch of the Small2Big project
.Prorpio Small2Big represents one of the main novelties of the last budget, since the project - initiated and developed by CFI to foster the development of the financial market of small and medium-sized social enterprises by favouring their capitalisation and asset consolidation - started last April, after the awarding of the call for tenders. A sort of 'phase two' of Wbo (although the project involves all CFI-funded cooperatives), which aims to consolidate and grow the smallest realities.
Fourteen interventions were approved in 2023 (out of a total of 50 planned by February 2025), with a total contribution of EUR 1.9 million in share capital, EUR 490,000 in subsidised loans, and EUR 1.7 million in long-term interest-free loans, for a total investment of EUR 3.6 million in resources. Of these 14 supported enterprises, six are located in Lombardy, four in Sicily, two in Veneto, and one each in Piedmont and Sardinia. In the first four months of 2024, another nine interventions were added, for which, says Frangi, 'we are confident that we will be able to fulfil our commitments.
