Shrinking margins but more robust balance sheets in 2025
Revenue growth has slowed to 1.7 per cent, with almost one in five companies in the sector making a loss. However, equity stands at just under 40 per cent of total assets.
Margins are shrinking, whilst the proportion of loss-making companies is rising. At the same time, however, liquidity and equity are strengthening, painting a picture of a system that is becoming more robust year on year.
The analysis carried out by Cerved on the 2025 financial statements of Italian companies – a robust sample of 180,000 businesses accounting for almost 40 per cent of national value added – highlights, first and foremost, the complexity of the current situation. Tariffs, international crises and stagnant investment are primarily causing a slowdown in revenue growth, which rose by an average of just 1.7 per cent – almost one percentage point less than the previous year – with 44 per cent of the sample reporting stable or negative figures. A clear polarisation is evident when looking at the strongest performers – those growing by over 10 per cent – a proportion that has fallen to 32.7 per cent, down by 2.5 percentage points compared with 2024, and by almost 13 compared with 2023, when the growth was also linked to the surge in share prices.
Whilst, in terms of revenue growth, the best results are seen in services and agriculture, with growth of over 3 per cent, growth in 2025 for industry (including utilities) is zero, as is the case for construction.
2025 is also set to be a lacklustre year in terms of profit margins, which are set to contract despite a reduction in the proportion of raw material costs. In fact, staff costs are rising as a result of the increase in the workforce: +185,000 (+0.8%) across Italia as a whole, and +20,000 (+0.7%) in the sample analysed.
The gross operating margin and EBITDA as a percentage of revenue have thus fallen by an average of a few decimal places, although there is considerable variation in the results.
