Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Milan

  • Afterpay acquires Pagantis and enters Spain, France, and Italy markets

    Afterpay acquires Pagantis and enters Spain, France, and Italy markets

    Afterpay, the leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” payments, announced that it has entered into an agreement with NBQ Corporate SLU to acquire Pagantis SAU and PMT Technology SLU.

    Pagantis is a European company that offers payment services for ecommerce merchants across Spain, France, and Italy.

    According to Afterpay ”Southern Europe has an addressable ecommerce market which exceeds €150b (US$[177b) across Spain, Italy and France. With large millennial populations, a strong fashion and beauty market, and significant consumer debit card usage, there is a strong opportunity to offer BNPL services”.

    As part of the agreement, NBQ will receive a minimum €50m, with €5m in cash payable at completion of the acquisition and a deferred consideration of a minimum of €45m, payable three years after completion of the agreement.

    Deferred consideration can exceed €45m, provided the equity value of Pagantis exceeds €45m after three years. 

    Afterpay will offer Pagantis’ BNPL products under its European brand, Clearpay. Pagantis founder and CEO, Rolf Cederström, will continue leading the new European team.

    Pagantis’ existing credit products will be discontinued.

  • Call for tender for work on the Fortezza–Ponte Gardena railway section

    Call for tender for work on the Fortezza–Ponte Gardena railway section

    Rete Ferroviaria Italiana published the call for tender for the final design and execution of the section of the line between Fortezza and Ponte Gardena.

    It covers around 22.5 kilometres of new railway line. The line travels through two twin-tube tunnels, Scaleres and Gardena, which are 15.4 and 6.3 kilometres long respectively and are connected by a bridge over the Eisack River.

    The cost of the work, including execution planning, is over 1.15 billion euros, while the total investment is 1.52 billion, financed by the master plan agreed by RFI and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.

    The new Fortezza-Ponte Gardena line is the natural continuation of the Brenner Base Tunnel, and adds to the general strengthening of the Verona-Munich axis as part of the TEN-T Scandinavia-Mediterranean European railway freight corridor.

    The section will come into use at the same time as the Brenner Base Tunnel is opened.

  • Air Dolomiti new flight from Forlì to Munich starting December 1st

    Air Dolomiti new flight from Forlì to Munich starting December 1st

    Air Dolomiti announces a new flight that will connect Forlì to Munich. The airline will connect the two areas offering passengers a wide choice among the international flights offered by the Lufthansa network.

    From December 1st Forlì will be able to benefit from multi-weekly Lufthansa codeshare frequencies, operated from Monday to Friday, with the following flights: 

    • Monday, Wednesday and Friday: Munich – Forlì: 08:00 – 09:10; Forlì – Munich: 09:50 – 11:00;
    • Tuesday and Thursday: Munich – Forlì: 17:50 – 19:00; Forlì – Munich: 19:40 – 20:50.

    For the above flights the company offers fares starting from 129 € round trip, taxes and surcharges included. 

    ”The proposal for flights from Forlì to the Munich hub is a confirmation of our desire to expand our offer and guarantee travellers an increasingly composite and efficient range of alternatives – says Joerg Eberhart, President & CEO of Air Dolomiti.

  • Italian company launches a device for maintaining social distancing

    Italian company launches a device for maintaining social distancing

    Italian company IK Multimedia, based in Modena, launched Safe Spacer, a lightweight wearable device that helps workers and visitors maintain safe social distancing.

    Able to be worn on a lanyard, wristband or belt loop, Safe Spacer precisely detects when other Safe Spacer units come within 2m, alerting wearers with a choice of visual, vibrating or audio alarm.

    Using Ultra-wideband technology, Safe Spacer offers accuracy up to 10x better than Bluetooth, and can optionally store “collision” data to monitor compliance or perform fast contact tracing.

    Each device also features a unique ID tag and built-in memory to optionally associate with workers’ names for tracing unintended contact.

    For privacy, no data except the device’s ID and proximity is stored.

    Safe Spacer will be available in September directly from IK Multimedia, at the following prices:

    • Safe Spacer – $99.99/€85.00 each;
    • S-Charger – $299.99/€270.00 each;
    • S-Bridge – $139.99/€120.00 each.
  • Leonardo and Sofia, the most chosen names for newborns in Milan

    Leonardo and Sofia, the most chosen names for newborns in Milan

    Milanese parents remain faithful to the traditional names in the first half of 2020. Among the most popular surnames, however, there is a novelty: Hu surpasses the Italian Rossi also in the women’s ranking.

    Among the 4.856 babies born from January 1 to June 30, 213 were named Leonardo, 108 Sofia and 106 Giulia. They are followed by Thomas (153), Riccardo (123), Alessandro (122) and Lorenzo (120) for boys, Geneva (90), Alice (84), Camilla and Beatrice for girls (79).

    Foreign moms and dads also prefer the name Leonardo (58), which last year was only in 4th place.

    This year the surname Hu surpasses the Italian Rossi also in the women’s ranking: the Hu ladies are 2.210 compared to 2.133 named Rossi.

    In third place are ladies Colombo (1.832).

    The situation is the same among male surnames: 2.454 Hu, 1.873 Rossi and 1.543 Colombo.

    Fourth place for both genres is Ferrari (1.720 and 1.506 respectively).

  • Enel X at 50.000 charging points available throughout Europe

    Enel X at 50.000 charging points available throughout Europe

    Enel X expands its electric vehicle (EV) charging network to more than 50.000 public charging points.

    This significant increase from about 30.000 already available in early June was made by kicking off eRoaming connectivity with North European EV charging point operator Last Mile Solutions as well as has·to·be and E.ON.

    Under the framework of the Hubject e-mobility platform, this progress now allows Enel X JuicePass app users to charge their EVs, without signing new contracts, in the charging points operated by Last Mile Solutions, has·to·be and E.ON, on a network of around 20.000 additional charging points in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands.

    JuicePass customers will now be able to use the app and cross the borders with one single interface from the Nordics through Germany, Austria and Switzerland on their trip to Italy.

    Enel X is expected to increase its network of public and private charging points made available worldwide to approximately 736.000 by 2022 from around 130.000 available today.

    What is Hubject?

    The Hubject e-mobility joint venture was founded in 2012.

    Headquartered in Berlin, its shareholders are, alongside Enel X: BMW Group, Bosch, EnBW, Mercedes Benz AG, Innogy, Siemens and the Volkswagen Group.

    The joint venture boasts over 750 business partners as well as 250.000 interoperable charging points in Albania, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

  • Pirelli revenues down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019

    Pirelli revenues down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019

    Pirelli revenues at 1,816.4 million euro, down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019 (-28.5% the organic variation) due to the strong reduction in demand and foreign exchange volatility, while the price mix improves.

    Adjusted Ebit at 66.7 million euro thanks to the contribution of efficiencies and cost containment actions that limited the impact of the reduction in demand and the slowdown (440.5 million euro in the first half of 2019).

    Total net result: -101.7 million euro (+307 million euro in the first half of 2019)

    Net cash flow: -757.5 million euro (-817.4 million euro in the first half of 2019, -640.5 million euro net of dividends distributed in 2019)

    Net financial position: -4,264.7 million euro substantially unchanged compared to -4,261 million euro as at 31 March 2020

    Liquidity Margin: 2,174.1 million euro as at 30 June 2020, the maturities on financial debt guaranteed for approximately 3 years

  • Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million in H1 2020

    Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million in H1 2020

    Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million, with a -11.8% organic change. The good performance reported in North America, especially the Energy & Infrastructure market, allowed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

    Overall, the whole Energy segment proved relatively resilient, despite reporting a negative growth.

    The Telecom segment shrank due both to the challenging comparison with the same period of 2019, and to the effects of the pandemic, which remarkably slowed down installation activities.

    Within the Projects segment, high-voltage cable and system production and installation were impacted by the pandemic, whereas the submarine cable business was able to partially offset the decline in sales volumes leveraging on the quality of its project execution capabilities.   

    Adjusted Prysmian EBITDA stood at €419 million

    The decline compared to €521 million for the first half of 2019 was mainly attributable to the decrease in sales.

    Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €222 million in the second quarter of 2020 (ratio to Sales at 9.3% vs 9.4% for the second quarter of 2019), up compared to €197 million in the first quarter of 2020 (ratio to Sales 7.6% vs 8.3% for the first quarter of 2019).

    The ratio of Adjusted EBITDA to Sales was 8.4% compared to 8.9% in H1 2019.

    EBITDA amounted to €407 million (€492 million in the first half of 2019), including net expenses for company reorganisation, net non-recurring expenses and other net non-operating expenses totalling €12 million (€29 million in the first half of 2019). 

    Operating income amounted to €173 million (€335 million in the first six months of 2019), due to the partial write-down of assets in the South Europe region for €43 million.

    Net profit was €78 million (€190 million for the first six months of 2019).

    Net Financial Debt decreased to €2,516 million at 30 June 2020 (€2,819 million at 30 June 2019; €2,140 million at 31 December 2019).

  • Enel X and ALD Automotive develop JuiceMotion, a solution for e-mobility

    Enel X and ALD Automotive develop JuiceMotion, a solution for e-mobility

    JuiceMotion, an innovative solution for the spread of electric mobility in Italy has been launched, after a partnership between ALD Automotive and Enel X.

    Customers who choose to rent a fully electric or Hybrid plug-in vehicle will have access to Enel X’s advanced charging services.

    Now with JuiceMotion, ALD Automotive and Enel X offer a new product, aimed at both private customers and corporate mobility, which will make the long-term rental of an electric car more convenient through an all-inclusive “worry-free” fee and a diluted payment over the years of the rental.

    A solution that offers, a card with 1,350 kWh included for use at Enel X charging points and the supply of the JuiceBox domestic charging infrastructure.

  • Italy GDP, -12,4% in the second quarter of 2020

    Italy GDP, -12,4% in the second quarter of 2020

    In the second quarter of 2020 Italy Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 12.4 per cent with respect to the previous quarter and by 17.3 per cent over the same quarter of previous year, Istat shows.

    The second quarter of 2020 has had one working day less than both the previous and the same quarter of previous year.

    The quarter on quarter change is the result of a decrease of value added in agriculture, forestry and fishing, in that of industry as well as in services.

    From the demand side, there is a negative contribution both by the domestic component (gross of change in inventories) and the net export component.

    The carry-over annual GDP growth for 2020 is equal to -14.3%.

  • In June, retail index in Italy +12.1% over May and -2,2% year on year

    In June, retail index in Italy +12.1% over May and -2,2% year on year

    In June 2020 retail trade in Italy continued its recovery after sharp falls due to the pandemic emergency, shows latest Istat data.

    However, levels of total sales in the month on month series remained lower than levels recorded at the beginning of 2020, before Covid-19 outbreak. Compared with May 2020, estimates of value grew by 12.1%, while volume of sales rose by 12.5%.

    In the second quarter of 2020 the seasonally adjusted index showed a decline, as value of sales decreased by 7.9% and volume dropped by 8.8% compared with the first quarter of 2020.

    In June 2020, value and volume of sales contracted in the year on year series by 2.2% and by 3.5% respectively, after a steeper decline reported in April and May 2020.

    Comparing with the same month a year earlier, large-scale distribution fell by 1.8%, small-scale distribution decreased by 6.4% and non-store sales was down 5.9%.

    Internet sales reached a record 53.5% when compared with June 2019, confirming a shift within the retail trade to online sales.

    Looking at the value of sales for non-food products, data outlined a mixed picture across different categories in the year on year series.

    Growths were reported for Computers and telecommunications equipment (+15.1%) and Furniture and textile items and household furnishings (+10.4%). The largest drops were reported for Shoes, leather goods and travel items (-12.8%) and Clothing (-12.3%).

  • Prysmian fills two legal proceedings against a competitor in the field of telecom cables

    Prysmian fills two legal proceedings against a competitor in the field of telecom cables

    Prysmian announced the filing of two legal proceedings against a competitor company in the field of telecom cables.

    In order to protect its technology and investment against any unauthorized use of its patents, Prysmian has filed patent infringement cases related to the unauthorized use of Prysmian’s European Patents EP1668392 B1 (“EP ‘392”) and EP 2390700 B1 (“EP ‘700”), in Germany.

    The two complaints were filed before the District Court of Munich.

    The European Patent EP ‘392 relates to telecommunication optical cables, and in particular to a telecommunication optical cable with a highly reduced diameter.

    The European Patent EP ‘700 relates to optical fibre telecommunications cables, particularly bundled cable units containing optical fibres.