Foreigners buy up our companies, but Italian companies also work around the world. We list all the acquisitions, from fashion to pharmaceuticals.
The refrain hasn’t changed for years. As soon as a multinational buys a local brand, the funeral chorus starts: Italy would become an economic colony, a supermarket of luxury, food and manufacturing where foreigners pass by with their trolleys and take away the best. The narrative is evocative. Too bad it’s incomplete. Because while the spotlight is on foreigners who buy in the Bel Paese, in the shadows a very different phenomenon is taking place: Italian entrepreneurs are bringing home historic brands that have emigrated abroad and, at the same time, are carrying out a massive purchasing campaign across the border.
The numbers tell a much less depressing story than the one that is fashionable on talk shows. In the last three years, national companies have invested around 2 billion euros to bring brands and activities that had fallen into foreign hands back under their control. During the same period they spent another 9 billion to acquire companies abroad. Eleven billion in total industrial operations that shape a country far from unconditional surrender. And, above all, these are figures destined to grow. Because the bill does not yet fully incorporate the effects of the gigantic operations concluded in 2026 by Italian pharmaceuticals, a sector that is experiencing an epochal transformation.
In short, rather than a land of conquest, we increasingly resemble an industrial power that has begun to move again. Starting with the return of the prodigal son. The most important nationalization bears the signature of Patrizio Bertelli. When Prada decided to put 1.25 billion on the table to bring Versace back under Italian control, it wasn’t simply making an acquisition. He sent a message. For years Versace had been considered one of the symbols of Italianness that ended up abroad. The arrival of Capri Holdings in the US universe seemed to have closed the chapter. Instead Bertelli went to get it back. Not out of nostalgia. By strategy. And the fact that Lorenzo, heir to the empire built by his parents, has been called to lead the operational management of the Medusa brand indicates that the operation is looking at the next decades and not the next quarter.
Versace is not an isolated case. Paolo Merloni, owner of Ariston founded by his father Aristide, brought Riello Group back to Italy, which had fallen into the orbit of the American Carrier. An operation that is worth much more than the simple transfer of ownership. Riello represents a piece of industrial history. Bringing it back under national control meant preventing one of the most important assets in the sector from perhaps ending up in some large Asian conglomerate wishing to strengthen its European presence. Ariston, moreover, is not a group that thinks defensively. He has been playing attack for years. And the acquisition of Riello confirms that the objective is to build a European champion.
Then there is the case of Angelo Mastrolia, one of the most dynamic and least celebrated entrepreneurs of national capitalism. With NewPrinces he brought Plasmon back into Italian hands, together with brands such as Nipiol, BiAglut, Aproten and Dieterba. For many consumers they are simply products on the shelves. For professionals, they represent decades of history of Italian infant nutrition. Mastrolia didn’t stop there. He built a European food group by buying businesses in the United Kingdom, taking over assets from Mitsubishi and subsequently getting his hands on Carrefour’s Italian activities born from the transformation of the old GS brand.
A path that speaks very well of the new generation of local entrepreneurs: less attached to the bell tower and much more interested in the continental scale. The same pattern is found in other less flashy but equally significant operations.
The Busi family, through Sibat Tomarchio, has brought back Beltè, the historic iced tea brand born in the Sanpellegrino universe and then ended up at the Dutch Refresco. ReLife, a Genoese group active in the circular economy, has instead purchased DomoLiving from the German Melitta group, bringing popular brands such as Domopak, Spazzy and Misterpack back under Italian control. Brands that many of us encounter every day in the kitchen without knowing what’s behind a pack of cling film.
But the real news is different: Italians are buying the world. Yep, the most interesting part of the story isn’t about what comes back. For every brand brought home there are many more purchased abroad. This is where the theory of Rome being reduced to a shopping ground for others finally collapses.
Let’s take Ferrero. While many continued to discuss Italian industrial decadence, Giovanni Ferrero bought Kellogg in the United States for 3.1 billion dollars, bringing home one of the most iconic American breakfast brands.
Campari is in the same vein, having taken over Courvoisier, the historic French cognac brand, further strengthening its presence in the global premium segment.
De’ Longhi has acquired Nutribullet in the United States. Iveco has bought the Dutch company Heliox, specialized in electric charging systems. Movopack, a Milanese sustainable packaging company, has conquered the French market through the acquisition of Hipli. Bonifiche Ferraresi continues to expand: the latest move came a few weeks ago with the acquisition of a business unit of the Swiss Syngenta dedicated to the production of hybrid corn seeds.
The fashion and accessories sector has also started to move. Damiani seized the opportunity to acquire Baume & Mercier, a historic Swiss watchmaking house. Morellato has taken over Fossil’s Italian distribution activities, further strengthening its international presence. BasicNet brought Woolrich Europe and the brand rights in Europe back under its control, demonstrating how even medium-sized companies can play a global game.
And there’s Bending Spoons. For years considered a promising Milanese startup, today it is an international acquisition machine. After a long series of operations culminating in the acquisition of the American Vimeo, the group is preparing to compete with the large international financial markets. A story that until a few years ago would have seemed like science fiction and which today instead represents one of the most interesting cases of European digital capitalism.
However, if there is a sector that is truly changing the Italian economic geography, it is pharmaceuticals. Here we are faced with something more than simple acquisitions. A true tricolor Big Pharma is being born. The largest international acquisition ever made by an Italian pharmaceutical group was that of Angelini Pharma, which bought the American Catalyst Pharmaceuticals for 4.1 billion dollars. A figure which alone is worth more than many of the industrial operations carried out in recent years. The objective is very clear: to enter directly into the American market and become a world leader in rare neurological diseases. Not a niche: one of the frontiers of contemporary medicine.
Almost simultaneously, Chiesi Farmaceutici responded with another gigantic operation, acquiring the American biotech KalVista Pharmaceuticals for 1.9 billion dollars. Ekterly arrives as a gift, the first on-demand oral therapy against hereditary angioedema: a rare but very disabling pathology despite having the harmless appearance of a swelling of the skin. But above all, a technological platform arrives that strengthens the global positioning of the Parma group in less common diseases. The numbers tell the rest.
Chiesi invests almost 24% of its turnover in research and development, a percentage that exceeds that of many international giants. The declared objective is to reach 6 billion in turnover by 2030. These are figures of a global multinational, not of a regional company.
And while Angelini and Chiesi accelerate, Menarini continues to consolidate its international role in oncology and pharmaceutical specialties, demonstrating that the sector is experiencing a phase of unprecedented consolidation and growth. Alongside them, Stevanato Group advances, having become one of the world leaders in high-tech pharmaceutical packaging.
It is a profound transformation. Italian companies are moving from the local producer model to that of the global champion. They use Artificial Intelligence to reduce search times and costs. They invest in gene therapies. They buy American biotechs. They compete in the most advanced markets on the planet. In other words, they do exactly what large multinationals do.
