The Italian market still struggles to guarantee liquidity, visibility and continuity in access to capital for listed SMEs. It is not enough to encourage new prices, but we need to build an ecosystem that retains them and enhances them over time. This is what emerged during the conference “SMEs, capital markets and industrial sovereignty between critical issues and prospects – Growth options for the Italian system”, organized by AssoNEXT, the association of listed Italian SMEs, which for the occasion also presented a roadmap divided into twelve proposals to strengthen the Italian capital market, with particular reference to the Euronext Growth Milan (EGM) segment of the Italian Stock Exchange.
The market numbers
According to the data presented, Euronext Growth Milan has 207 listed companies, with a total capitalization of approximately 10.8 billion euros. Since 2015, the number of issuers has tripled, with over 135 new companies. In 2025 the FTSE Italia Growth index closed at +9%, with a further +3% in the first months of 2026. 2026 valuations show EV/EBITDA multiples at 5.8x and P/E at 13.6x. The sectoral composition sees industry at 41%, consumer goods at 17% and the technology sector at 11%. However, the issue of liquidity remains: average daily trades stood at 7 million euros, down 12.5% compared to the 2025 average. Over the last thirty months, new listings have continued to prevail over delistings, with a progressively narrowing gap.
The president’s statement
“The data confirm what we have been warning for some time: the Italian market still struggles to guarantee liquidity, visibility and continuity in access to capital for listed SMEs. It is not enough to encourage new listings – we need to build an ecosystem that retains them and enhances them over time. The operational proposals that we are presenting today arise exactly from this awareness: a concrete plan to put SMEs back at the center of the country’s industrial policy and to make the capital market a real lever for growth, competitiveness and economic sovereignty.”, underlined Vincenzo Polidoro, president of AssoNEXT and executive advisor of First Capital.
Roadmap with three directions
The roadmap, illustrated by vice-president Anna Lambiase, CEO of IRTOP Consulting, is divided into three axes: Fair Market (efficiency and competitiveness of the price list), Patient Finance (channeling savings towards SMEs) and Equity Visibility (strengthening visibility among investors).
Among the proposed measures include the introduction of fiscal instruments inspired by the ACE logic for the capitalization of listed companies, the regulatory simplification for takeover bids, translisting, buyback and reverse take-over, the structural stabilization of the IPO tax credit and the extension of the IPO Bonus to indirect listings, on the model of regional initiatives such as Quota Lombardia.
On the patient finance front, AssoNEXT proposes to enhance EGM as a market “gymnasium”, to promote listed SMEs as an asset class for pension funds, funds and social security institutions, to dedicate a core portion of Savings & Investment Accounts to Italian small and mid caps and to relaunch PIRs – also in the Alternative version – as “industrial infrastructure”, as well as orienting Unit Linked and PAC towards domestic public equity.
For Equity Visibility, annual research on listed SMEs is planned (first edition in the fourth quarter of 2026), the AssoNEXT Investor Day (first quarter of 2027) and the AssoNEXT Data HUB, a consensus platform on the economic-financial forecasts of listed companies.
