Foreign Press, Italy's Success Stories
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National Interest Project Foreign Press, Italy’s success stories Fifteenth summary report Foreign press review for the period January 21 to February 21, 2011 The big names in fashion and Prada’s Hong Kong listing During the period monitored, international newspaper coverage of Italian business affairs focused on the country’s major fashion labels. Prada in particular, with the announcement of its imminent listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, was the Italian corporate group that notched up the most press mentions as the subject of 12 articles published between January 24 and February 7. The IPO was covered extensively by the European, American and Asian press, with items appearing in Le Monde, Les Echos, the Handelsblatt, The Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, and the South China Morning Post. The reports went beyond merely outlining the details of the offering, emphasizing that the fashion house’s decision to list would “set the trend for fashion brands in Europe”. Also earning column inches in the pages of the foreign press during this period was Cavalli, with two pieces commenting on the group’s growth in emerging markets appearing respectively in the International Herald Tribune (of January 21), which revealed that the Italian designer “sees opportunities in Asia”, and in The Moscow Times (on February 1), which detailed plans to open new Cavalli-branded clubs in Russia. Still on the subject of the presence of Italian luxury brands in emerging markets, an article published in the Financial Chronicle (of January 31) looked at the expansion of Versace and Poltrona Frau in India, whilst further items that appeared in Portugal’s Diário de Noticias examined Armani style (on January 26) and the sale of Gianfranco Ferré (on February 9). Italian industry: Fiat, Eni and Enel The monitoring period saw Fiat continue to attract a great deal of attention from the international papers. 10 reports appeared in the foreign press over the last month dealing with the business affairs of the Turin-based group, rising to over 28 if economic policy-related items concerning the debate currently underway in Italy over Fiat’s industrial plan are taken into account. The newspapers in question (namely, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, La Tribune, Les Echos, Le Figaro, the Handelsblatt, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Expansión, and The Pak Banker) focused mainly on the relaunch of Chrysler, described by Les Echos as “an Italian miracle”, and the integration of the U.S. group and the Turin-based carmaker. Another Italian industry well-represented in press coverage for the period was the energy sector. Eni, in particular, was the subject of three reports: one on January 24 in La Tribune examining a deal with PetroChina, and two on February 8 and 9 respectively in the Diário de Noticias regarding the sale of a stake in the Portuguese operator Galp. A similar number of articles were published concerning Enel, two relating to its success in meeting debt reduction targets (in Les Echos and the Financial Times on February 4) and one regarding the group’s record geothermal energy production levels (consisting of a report from Enel’s Larderello site published in the February 8 edition of Les Echos). The internationalization efforts of Italy’s major corporate groups In terms of coverage of the internationalization efforts of major Italian groups, in the agro-food sector, Lavazza’s ambitious plans for growth in India drew increasing press attention. Newspapers carrying related items included the Economic Times (of January 31), which featured an interview with the group’s vice president Giuseppe Lavazza, and The Hindu Business Line (of February 3), which ran an article focusing on the strategies of the Italian brand. Ferrero was the subject of an article in La Tribune (on January 11) which examined the group’s significant investment in advertising in France. As regards the financial sector, the international papers concentrated on the growth strategies of Assicurazioni Generali. Starting from February 7, there were 9 reports published in various foreign papers (namely, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Moscow Times, The Moscow News, and La Tribune) all relating to negotiations for the purchase of a stake in Russian bank VTB. In terms of Italian service industries, press mentions of Trenitalia were noteworthy, particularly given its usual absence from the pages of the foreign papers. Indeed, the group led by Mauro Moretti featured in three French newspaper articles on January 20 (in La Tribune, Le Figaro, and Les Echos) which looked at a joint-venture deal with Veolia aimed at increasing Trenitalia’s presence in the European rail-transport market. Leading Italian business and sporting figures Over the last month, foreign press interest in prominent Italians was predominantly focused on the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Mario Draghi, in the lead-up to the appointment of a new President of the European Central Bank. There were 6 items in this vein published between February 10 and 16 in the European press (in the Financial Times, the Handelsblatt, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and in the U.S. (The Wall Street Journal). In addition to profiling the man, the papers emphasized Draghi’s strong chances of winning the post of President to be vacated by Jean-Claude Trichet within nine months. One of the more glowing assessments was that published by the Financial Times, in which the British financial daily admitted to endorsing Draghi’s candidacy in the belief that the Governor has all the right credentials to lead the eurozone out of danger. Around the same time, the head of the Bank of Italy gave an interview to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in which stressed the need to follow the German economic model in order to overcome the crisis. Another Italian business figure garnering press interest during the period was Sara Ravella, the new Director of Corporate Communications at L’Oreal, who was profiled in Le Figaro on January 25. From the sporting world, tennis player Francesca Schiavone was the focus of many reports from the Australian Open on January 23. In the days immediately following, six extensive articles appeared in as many newspapers (namely, Le Figaro, The Guardian, The Washington Post, the South China Morning Post, Gulf News, and The Hindu) describing the Italian sportswoman’s record-breaking match. Finally, El País (on February 4) reported on mountaineer Simone Moro’s latest feat, detailing the story of his climb in Pakistan’s Karakorum mountain chain and the historic ascent to an altitude of 8 thousand meters. Italian cultural events and winter tourism Foreign press coverage of Italy’s cultural offerings during this period was varied though limited, focusing particularly on tourism-related features. Three papers suggested as three different “off-the- beaten-track” itineraries for discovering the cultural delights of Florence: The Jerusalem Post (of January 22) devoted an entire page to an exhibition of the work of Bronzino underway at Palazzo Strozzi, the International Herald Tribune (also on January 22) explored ancient sites and new contemporary art galleries at Florence’s ‘La Sapienza’ complex, whilst on February 6 Die Welt extolled the benefits of visiting the Tuscan capital in the heart of winter, when the throngs of tourists have eased and museums are not as crowded. The links between Indian civilization and the ancient Roman Empire formed the basis of an article published on January 25 by The Hindu marking an exhibition of ancient Roman coins found on the subcontinent. On the same day, Le Figaro drew its readers’ attention to the news of the sponsorship of the restoration of the Coliseum by Diego Dalla Valle and the celebrations to be held for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. In the first week of February, Die Zeit looked at the initiative of maestro Claudio Abbado – an advocate of the “Abreu method” in Italy – aimed at establishing youth orchestras and promoting the spread of musical culture, a proposal modeled on that of Venezuela’s former Minister of Culture, José Abreu. Finally, straddling business and culture was a lengthy article on Turin published in Time magazine on January 25. According to the U.S. weekly, the Piedmontese capital could serve as an example for American industrial cities such as Cleveland. The piece went on to acknowledge that, having focused efforts on revitalizing its image and fostering partnership between municipal and regional authorities and the business community, Turin has succeeded in attracting investment and rehabilitating entire districts of the city, including the Lingotto area. Italian contributions to scientific research Among the various international scientific journals monitored, Science, The Lancet and a number of specially-themed journals published by Nature followed studies carried out by Italian laboratories and universities with continued interest, publishing dozens of related articles. The majority of the contributions (17 out of 23) published during this monitoring period were in the area of medical research. Italian researchers particularly distinguished themselves in the fields of oncology and genetics. In terms of the former, three studies were published by The Lancet concerning cervical cancer and leukemia, 3 by the British Journal of Cancer – Nature and Nature Reviews Neurology on the treatment of prostate, pancreatic and colon cancer, and 1 by Oncogene - Nature on Ewing’s sarcoma. Meanwhile, three genetics studies were published in Nature Genetics, the European Journal of Human Genetics – Nature and Cell Death & Differentiation – Nature. Lastly, other research contributions published in the scientific press during the period were in the fields of immunology (one in the EMBO Journal – Nature, and another in Cellular & Molecular Immunology on celiac disease), dermatology (one in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology – Nature), obesity (one in Obesity – Nature) and gastroenterology (one in The American Journal of Gastroenterology – Nature).