The U.S. marketplace is the pinnacle of business growth and investment opportunity; competitive, fast moving, dynamic, yet the most accessible in the world. In many respects, the U.S. remains the most attractive and largest global investment destination far outstripping other nations in foreign direct investment dollars. Foreign investment in the U.S. provides access to the vast American marketplace, its deep talent pool, a stable and innovative business environment and intelligent and rich sources of investment finance and capital.
The U.S. offers a business ecosystem unmatched in the world comprised of world class universities, flexible labor markets and deep talented labor pools and a highly developed judicial system protective of foreign investment and intellectual property. Moreover, its financial markets and stock exchanges provide a vast array of sophisticated financial products and capital sources, with unlimited venture capital and private equity sources.
Moreover, many successful Italian businesses are firmly ensconced in the U.S. marketplace across all industries and throughout every state. Italian design, craftmanship and advanced manufacturing prowess is highly prized and sought after. Many states welcome Italian investment and offer various incentive programs featuring tax holidays, labor subsidies, real estate availability, with enhanced benefits for establishing manufacturing operations.
Certainly, large Italian multination enterprises continue to lead with respect to foreign direct investment into the U.S. as they possess the managerial and financial assets necessary to succeed in this market. However, we continue to witness small Italian multinationals, (commonly referred to as “Pocket MNE’s) contributing to Italian direct investment into the U.S. Pocket MNE’s often hold competitive advantages in high value-added market niches and are keen to carry-out mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. as a vehicle to strengthen their respective position within their global supply chain as well as to source pools of foreign talent.
And last but not least, a business domiciled in the U.S. serves as an excellent gateway to the pursuit of business opportunities throughout Canada, Mexico and Latin America.
To this end, this Blog series encompasses a broad spectrum of U.S. market entry modalities. These modalities are discussed in the context of the level of risk and reward which each modality presents to the Italian enterprise. Beginning with simple U.S. representative or branch office and ending with foreign direct investment upon U.S. soil, the level of risk increases exponentially as capital is brought onshore and permanently invested in a direct foreign investment project. Yet with greater risk comes greater rewards for successful US market penetration. We believe presenting this series through the lens of escalating levels of risk provides the Italian enterprise with the proper strategic insight into assessing the merits of these different market entry modalities.
Our firm intimately understand the diverse risk levels in cross-border entry for Italian enterprises as we have counselled and participated in each market entry modality. Our legal, tax and business services seek to reduce project and investment risk and we stand ready to assist your market entry plans.
