Economy – Two Italian entrepreneurs featured in lead stories in the Financial Times this week. One, on February 10, was a profile on Marco Tronchetti Provera that included details on how the man in the number one slot at Pirelli managed to negotiate what is the most significant Chinese investment abroad to date (February 10 – Pirelli’s Tronchetti Provera: a contrarian view on dealmaking*).
The paper’s weekend edition then went on to publish a lengthy profile piece on Chiara Ferragni, the influencer who, 10 years after the launch of the Blonde Salad blog has become one of the most influential people in fashion with a global business that generates an annual turnover of some 30 million (February 8 – Chiara Ferragni — the Italian influencer who built a global brand*). Fashion was also the focus of a story in Le Monde that explained just how Gucci managed to increase sales by 33% in 2018, thereby “generating 80% of the Kering holding group’s operational results” (February 13 – Gucci propulse la rentabilité de Kering à des niveaux historiques*). Then, Reuters, the New York Times and the Financial Times all ran articles about Trussardi and the 50 million euro injection it will gain from selling a 60% share to investment fund QuattroR (February 13 – Italy’s Trussardi completes sale of 60 pct stake to QuattroR, Italian family-owned luxury brand Trussardi sells out to fund*; Italy’s Trussardi Completes Sale of 60 Percent Stake to QuattroR.
Culture – The New York Times set out all the events taking place throughout the world to mark this year’s 500-year anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death (February 12 – Celebrating the 500th Anniversary of Leonardo). Next, Le Monde told all about a Paris exhibition dedicated to the work of and mirages created by the “atypical photographer” Luigi Ghirri (February 13 – Photographie : Luigi Ghirri, arpenteur de mirages), another French daily, Libération, ran a review of the diary written by Giani Stuparich from Trieste who started out World War 1 as a soldier in the Austrian army but ended it fighting for Italy (February 13 – GIANI STUPARICH, LIGNES DU FRONT EN 1915). Still the journalist Emanuela Audisio was the focus of an article having recently won the Manuel Vazquez Montalbàn prize for her “innovative approach” to sports news (El País, February 13 – Ocho lecciones de Emanuela Audisio, primera mujer con el Premio Vázquez Montalbán).
Food – This sector featured in a Reuters piece that described how Massimo Zanetti set about making an important acquisition in Portugal’s coffee sector (February 13 – Massimo Zanetti buys Cafes Nandi to boost coffee production in Portugal), whilst Der Standard provided its readers with all the most famous recipes associated with Carnival time in Italy (February 12 – Rezept für das Faschingsgebäck, das ganz Italien eint) and attention was also given to the best pizzerias in Madrid (El Mundo, February 8 – Las mejores pizzerías de Madrid).
*Article available for pay / at registration