Il rating delle imprese nel settore agroalimentare

The thesis represents a study of financial and economic aspects of agri-food sector together with ratings assigned to companies, in particular to understand the features of the sector in Italy, a deep comparison between Italian companies with the ones in France- Spain and eventually Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The analysis is conducted, in detail, through a study of macroeconomic overview including the sectorࢠs general overview, structural features, and impacts on economies of countries (first at the European Union base, followed by country base). In order to highlight current situation and future development of the agri-food sector; sectorࢠs impact on economies and rural development, structural features of the sector, mid-term perspectives, European policies for the sector are analyzed with details. Same study is realized for France, Italy and finally for Spain. A basic conceptual structure is identified for modelling credit risk in agri-food sector. Various methodologies and components of several credit risk models applied in rating evaluation are analyzed in relation to credit risk in the agri-food sector. The core and features of the models are exhibited and furthermore a comparison of the models based on daily business examples and academic studies is realized. Taking into account features of companies that comprise the sector, the difficulties faced by the academicians, analysts and business profiles who are willing to comprehend financial and economic behaviours of the sector; a model so-called ࢠMulti Objective Rating Evaluation- MORE Modelࢠis selected to be the most applicable for evaluating the companies within the sector and assessing a rating to each company. ࢠMOREࢠis deemed the most appropriate, since the data requirements of the model can be fulfilled by the available data and features of the model are suitable for defining credit risk in agri-food sector. The model is tested on several macro geographic regions many times, especially during the global economic downturn; the results prove that model is quite accurate in distinguishing healthy companies between bankrupt companies; and deteriorating the ratings towards bankruptcy date. The model is applied to Italian agriculture companies in order to understand economic behaviour of companies by segregating the panel for size, economic scale, solvency, liquidity, profitability. This analysis is also carried out for the companies in Spain and France which is chosen on purpose since the government of the mentioned countries gave the same amount of importance to the sector in terms of economic, cultural and historical aspect, representing the ࢠcompetitorsࢠwithin the European Union. During the statistical studies, same data source is used for the three countries. The evaluation is followed with a local comparison of Italian companies and Friuli Venezia Giulian companies including a deep financial and economic analysis and a rating evaluation. The analysis is based on a data set which is derived from financial statements of the companies (between 2008 and 2010) in the geographical locations mentioned and thanks to this a trend analysis and a comparative analysis are easily conducted. The study shows that results of modelࢠs application can be extremely important in comprehending the trend of the sector within three years, the impacts of global financial crisis on companies in terms of various financial and economic aspects.