MEDIOBANCA REPORT ON THE LEADING COMPANIES (TURNOVER 2011): THE BIG ITALIAN WINE COMPANIES ARE STRONGER THAN THE CRISIS. TOP GIV (368 MILLION), ZONIN FOR GROWTH (+17%), ANTINORI FOR NET OPERATING INCOME (41 MILLION). DOWN ONLY THE "RUSSIAN" GANCIA

Despite the crisis, Italian wine is not doing badly: at least its industry leaders in size and turnover all grew in 2011. These are the results of the "Leading Italian Companies" report by Mediobanca, on 2010 and 2011 (downloadable at www.mbres.it), which analyzes the results of the most important companies of several sectors (1009 groups and 2550 companies). Looking at the specific wine companies, the top for sales is by far the Italian Wine Group, which closed 2011 at 368.4 million euros (+12.4% over 2010), followed by Caviro at 246.7 (+0.4%) and Cantine Riunite-Civ (which already controls Giv, ed), at 161.3 million euro (+14.7%). At the foot of the podium are: Cavit (151.5 million euros), Antinori (149.5), Mezzacorona (148.6), Fratelli Martini (144.3) and Zonin (124.1 million euros and the wine group with the biggest growth, +17.1% over 2010). Below 100 million euros, but with a plus sign over 2010, Santa Margherita (91.3 million euros) Cantina di Soave (89.1), Botter (86.6), Frescobaldi (85.8), Cevico (83.1), Gancia (64.1), Banfi (61.9), Ruffino (56.7) and La Gioiosa (52.7). The best net operating margin, however, according to the Mediobanca report is Antinori, at 41.267 million euros, while the biggest decrease in this category is Gancia (less 2.174 million euros), which at least in the short term does not seem to have benefited over the change of ownership: the Piedmont group has passed into the hands of the Russian fund "Russian Standard Corporation", of the tycoon Roustam Tariko.