IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/liu/liucec/2022-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Private equity for the development of smart cities: the Italian case

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Gervasoni
  • Francesco Bollazzi
  • Margherita Mietto

Abstract

The present study investigates whether Private Equity (PE) funds are supporting Smart cities’ development in Italy. Initial evidence is given regarding the presence of a convergence of financial resources towards businesses operating in the economic sectors considered to be strategic to the development of the cities of the future. Details regarding the major features of the phenomenon are provided. To perform the research, a sample of 1,369 PE transactions undertaken by Italian and foreign investors in Italy in the years 2015-2021 was examined. The final output of this paper is a descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis, whose main contributions are as follows. It emerges that companies operating in the industries that are key to the grounding of smart cities attracted substantial attention in the reference period. Infrastructures, firms providing ecological services and businesses supporting digitalization processes have catalyzed the greatest share of capital. Most operations have been conducted by International PE players and about half the investments have involved companies located either in Lombardy or in Lazio. Moreover, the buyout approach has been the most frequently adopted strategy when launching the examined deals. Finally, a significant growth of the entry multiple EV/EBITDA was recorded in the investigated period, suggesting soaring competition as well as PE players’ acknowledgement of the centrality of smart cities to the country’s future development.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Gervasoni & Francesco Bollazzi & Margherita Mietto, 2022. "Private equity for the development of smart cities: the Italian case," LIUC Papers in Economics 2022-14, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    • Handle: RePEc:liu:liucec:2022-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.biblio.liuc.it/wp/wp14/wp14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cornelia Caseau & Gilles Grolleau, 2020. "Impact Investing: Killing Two Birds with One Stone?," Post-Print hal-03447089, HAL.
    2. Steven Davis & John Haltiwanger & Ron Jarmin & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2008. "Private Equity and Employment," Working Papers 08-07r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, revised Oct 2011.
    3. Rajna Gibson & Philipp Krueger, 2017. "The Sustainability Footprint of Institutional Investors," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 17-05, Swiss Finance Institute.
    4. Steven Davis & John Haltiwanger & Ron Jarmin & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2008. "Private Equity and Employment," Working Papers 08-07, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau, revised Oct 2011.
    5. Reynir Indahl & Hannah Gunvor Jacobsen, 2019. "Private Equity 4.0: Using ESG to Create More Value with Less Risk," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 31(2), pages 34-41, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew Ellul & Marco Pagano & Fabiano Schivardi, 2018. "Employment and Wage Insurance within Firms: Worldwide Evidence," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(4), pages 1298-1340.
    2. Loris Guery & Anne Stevenot & Geoffrey T. Wood & Chris Brewster, 2017. "The Impact of Private Equity on Employment: The Consequences of Fund Country of Origin—New Evidence from France," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 723-750, October.
    3. Anne Stevenot & Loris Guery & Geoffrey Wood & Chris Brewster, 2018. "Country of Origin Effects and New Financial Actors: Private Equity Investment and Work and Employment Practices of French Firms," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(4), pages 859-881, December.
    4. Martin Olsson & Joacim Tåg, 2017. "Private Equity, Layoffs, and Job Polarization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(3), pages 697-754.
    5. Patricia Crifo & Vanina Forget, 2013. "Think Global, Invest Responsible: Why the Private Equity Industry Goes Green," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 21-48, August.
    6. Phillip Leslie & Paul Oyer, 2008. "Managerial Incentives and Value Creation: Evidence from Private Equity," NBER Working Papers 14331, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Paglia, John K. & Harjoto, Maretno A., 2014. "The effects of private equity and venture capital on sales and employment growth in small and medium-sized businesses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 177-197.
    8. Palcic, Dónal & Reeves, Eoin, 2013. "Private equity leveraged buyouts in European telecoms: The case of Eircom," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 573-582.
    9. Azimjon Kuvandikov & Andrew Pendleton & David Higgins, 2014. "Employment Change after Takeovers: The Role of Executive Ownership," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(2), pages 191-236, June.
    10. Thorsten Beck & Samuel Munzele Maimbo & Issa Faye & Thouraya Triki, 2011. "Financing Africa : Through the Crisis and Beyond," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2355, December.
    11. Goergen, Marc & O׳Sullivan, Noel & Wood, Geoffrey, 2014. "The employment consequences of private equity acquisitions: The case of institutional buy outs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 67-79.
    12. A. Edward Safarian, 2011. "International Mergers and Acquisitions," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Steven N. Kaplan & Per Stromberg, 2009. "Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 121-146, Winter.
    14. Eileen Appelbaum & Rosemary Batt, 2012. "A Primer on Private Equity at Work," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(5), pages 5-38.
    15. Shutao Cao, 2008. "A Model of Costly Capital Reallocation and Aggregate Productivity," Staff Working Papers 08-38, Bank of Canada.
    16. Steven J. Davis & John Haltiwanger & Kyle Handley & Ron Jarmin & Josh Lerner & Javier Miranda, 2014. "Private Equity, Jobs, and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 3956-3990, December.
    17. Wolfgang Breuer & Andreas Pinkwart, 2018. "Venture capital and private equity finance as key determinants of economic development," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 319-324, May.
    18. Antonio Falato & Nellie Liang, 2016. "Do Creditor Rights Increase Employment Risk? Evidence from Loan Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2545-2590, December.
    19. Alexander Borisov & Andrew Ellul & Merih Sevilir, 2015. "Access to Public Capital Markets and Employment Growth," CSEF Working Papers 399, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    20. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:liu:liucec:2022-14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Laura Ballestra (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/liuccit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.