Frescobaldi, Antinori, Santa Margherita, Lunelli, Argea: “LeQuotabili” according to Pambianco

Compagnia de’ Frescobaldi at no. 1 for wine, with sales in 2022 of 153 million euros and an ebitda of 60%, and a “rating” of 83.9 points, ahead, by just one decimal place, of Antinori, which, in 2022, recorded sales of 323 million euros and an ebitda of 47%, and then again Santa Margherita, with a score of 82.1, sales of 260 million euros and a profitability of 35%, the Lunelli Group, with 72.1 points, 153 million euros in sales and an ebitda of 19%, and finally Argea, with 70.9 points, 455 million euros in sales and a margin of 15%: these are the wine “top 5” of “LeQuotabili” 2023, according to Pambianco’s usual analysis (which, among small caps, also includes, in order, Piedmont’s Vietti, now owned by the American Krause family, Claudio Tipa’s ColleMassari Group and Francesco and Filippo Mazzei’s Marchesi Mazzei). These, according to the strategic consulting firm Pambianco, therefore, are the companies with the best fundamentals that make them suitable for listing on the stock exchange and accessing the capital market, as revealed by the No. 18 edition of the “Pambianco Award leQuotabili”, which, among all sectors, placed Sandro Veronesi’s Calzedonia Group at No. 1, of which the wineshop chain Signorvino (which has just opened in Paris, ed.) is also a part.
A ranking, Pambianco explains, that is carried out by taking “each year into consideration the financial statements of unlisted companies in the relevant sectors, and sorts the companies into a ranking according to the quotability assessment model developed by Pambianco based on the following seven parameters: growth % (2022-21-20), average ebitda % (2022-21-20), brand awareness, size, export, direct distribution, and market segment (high, medium, low)”. Overall, the analysis covered a sample worth 20 billion euros in sales, with an ebitda of 4.3 billion. These are data referring to 2022 for which there is an average revenue increase of 23% over the previous year, with the margin albeit very good dropping from 23.4 to 21.7%. The largest increase in revenue, among the different sectors, in 2020 over 2021, was obviously recorded by the hotellerie sector, which is finally returning to precovid levels. Another excellent increase is recorded by the wine sector, which increased by 28%. The other sectors achieved very good results with growth still above 20%. In terms of margins, too, the best performer is always the wine-producing sector with ebitda averaging close to 30%.
But, in this edition, the gaze was also broadened to the performance of lifestyle stocks listed on the world’s major stock exchanges, to offer a general overview across geographies as well. “If 2022 equity markets were characterized by an important generalized rebound with luxury stocks in great relief, the second part of 2023 saw a slowdown, although not worrying, referring rather to a consolidation”, Pambianco explains, “and the search for a healthy normalization. The strength of the segments under consideration that continue to attract investors’ interest remains evident. In fact, according to Pambianco analysis, as of November 1, 2023, the vast majority of stocks in the sector have moved in the sign of a slight contraction between two and five percentage points. Overall, out of 160 stocks considered (86 in fashion, 18 in wine, 15 in hotellerie, 17 in beauty, and 24 in furniture worldwide), on November 1, 2023, compared to December 31, 2022, the hotellerie sector alone put up 21.45%. Negative sign for the totality of companies considered fashion (-4.57%), wine (-2.37%), beauty -7.26%, and furniture (-3.67%). declines that, as we said, should be interpreted as a sign of normalization after the run of the previous twelve months”.
“In the Italian financial landscape of recent years”, David Pambianco explains in his introduction, “there has been a growing tendency for companies belonging to the lifestyle world to list on the stock market. This is a phenomenon that leads corporate management and ownership to reason about whether or not to take such a path or, in any case, to open their companies to the capital market in other ways. The economic and geopolitical juncture we are currently experiencing is crucial. Reduced by a pandemic, which has forced companies to revise much of their production cycles and distribution, with an open conflict in Europe and one on our doorstep, flexibility is required as a “ondicio sine qua non” to keep one’s business healthy and profitable. After the market euphoria we witnessed particularly in 2022, the situation is now necessarily normalizing. There remains, however, always an urgent need to grow in order to be able to solidly face international markets, to compete, and to address the issue of generational change.
The Pambianco leQuotabili Award (staged, in recent days, at Palazzo Mezzanotte, in Milan, headquarters of the Italian Stock Exchange, ed.) aims not only to photograph the state of the art of the companies that belong to our reference worlds - fashion, design, beauty, hotellerie, wine - but to offer to the overall reasoning, a benchmark of the company’s ability to raise capital on the Stock Exchange. A certificate, a qualitative rating that brings into focus the strengths and weaknesses of our system, which faces multiple challenges today. Having cleared digital for all in business processes, it is now artificial intelligence that has moved the horizon further and raised the bar of comparison. But also the urgency of attracting human capital, which is crucial for Italian companies, and consolidating around it the production chain that is and will remain key to long-term success. In all cases, listing on the stock exchange can offer lifestyle companies the opportunity to access significant financial resources, but it is a decision that must be carefully considered. It becomes critical that companies carefully consider the pros and cons, assess their financial and operational situation, and choose the right time window to maximize the benefits. Success in the stock market requires prudent management, a long-term commitment, and the ability to adapt to market dynamics”.