CAN THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN THE CAPITAL MARKETS, PRIVATE EQUITY AND BUSINESS LEAD TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES?

Luciano Balbo, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Oltre; Marco Carotenuto, Managing Partner of Clessidra Private equity; Marco Morfino, managing partner Clearwater Italia; Gian Matteo Pedrelli, CEO of FOS Group; Riccardo Zagaria, CEO of DOC Pharma. Video message from Giulio Centemero, group leader of the 6th Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies; Moderated by Benedetto Lonato, President of CDO Liguria

In recent years, finance has entered the life of Italian companies with ever greater intensity, especially SMEs: private equity funds, venture capital and capital markets for growth (Euronext Growth) now represent concrete opportunities for development. But the crucial issue is not technical. Can the world of finance and investment, and therefore those who inhabit it, be an instrument for a purpose higher than the cold calculation of return? Can business be that instrument? Can they truly be factors that have an impact on the common good? Or does the logic of return inevitably expose them to the risk of becoming extractive, oriented solely toward financial yield, perhaps in the short to medium term? When business and finance meet, capital and financial need do not meet alone: visions of the human person, risk, profit and responsibility meet. Is it possible that this encounter, if guided by appropriate intentions and criteria, generates value that is not only financial? Can a “new quality” be built in this relationship? The meeting aims to explore these questions through dialogue between entrepreneurs and leading figures from the financial world, comparing concrete experiences and cultural criteria. At the center there will be neither an ideological defense of finance nor a condemnation of it, but an open question: what conditions make finance truly an ally of the real economy and the common good? At a time when family savings, business competitiveness and social cohesion are closely intertwined, asking about the relationship between capital and business means asking about the future of our society.