Chinese buying up assets in recession-torn Italy
Website connects Italian business owners to local Chinese buyers, while Italy's bigger firms seek direct investment from mainland after PM visit
Clotilde Narzisi and Luca Soliman have run the Caffe Orefici, 60 metres from Milan's iconic Duomo Cathedral, for 10 years. Forced to sell their business because of high taxes, they say their only hope now is to leave it in Chinese hands.
"They are the only ones who are buying," said 43-year-old Narzisi during a break after the lunch-time rush of businessmen and shoppers in the heart of Italy's financial capital. "We want to sell, taxes are too high; we work eight hours a day for the state and one hour for us."
Caffe Orefici is among the 18,000 advertisements from businesses and individuals that have been published since February last year on Vendereaicinesi.it - sell to the Chinese - a website that helps Italians, stricken by the third recession in six years, attract bids for properties, products and services from Chinese suitors.
While Italian stores turn to the local Chinese community, the country's largest companies are seeking investments directly from the Asian giant. Italy has been China's biggest target in Europe after Britain this year, with cross-border acquisitions for US$3.43 billion.
The 321,000 Chinese living in the country are better positioned as they can count on family networks rather than banks for financing, said Toppino, who is from the northwestern town of Alba.