15
Sep
The Italian distressed and restructuring market in 2026: Dynamism and resilience
Italy's restructuring and distressed market in 2026 is experiencing high activity due to mounting operational pressures, high inflation and energy costs, following a year of high insolvencies in 2025.
Looking forward, a high volume of restructuring procedures and distressed M&A transactions is expected in the coming years, particularly in retail and manufacturing. Pandemic-era credit support such as SACE’s “Garanzia Italia” state-guaranteed loans that provided EUR42 billon of funding by June 30, 2022, has left a tail of maturing debt that companies will need to refinance over the next couple of years. Moreover, in many instances, lack of strategic view and need to cope with immediate cash needs have driven companies to unbalanced short-vs-long structure to fragmented lenders’ consortia. Our panel of experts will explore why Italy is emerging as one of Europe’s most active markets for restructuring and distressed investment.
- What is the current state of the restructuring market and what is projected for the next 12 months? The impact of Garanzia Italia maturing credit support on pipelines and liquidity challenges and the approach of the banks (large vs local, traditional vs challenger) to new second rounds of previously restructured companies
- How is the shift from NPEs to more proactive UTP management and NPLs changing the dynamics of credit portfolios and restructuring strategies?
- To what extent is cross-border activity and international investor interest increasing, and how is this influencing acquisitions and growth capital strategies?
- How can companies deploy innovative tools, including stronger governance, enhanced risk management and greater transparency to stabilise performance, preserve value in distressed situations and prevent fraud, cyber risk incidents and other capital events?
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SpeakersCristiano Dalla Bona Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets Mergermarket
Francesco Lisi Head of NPE Monte dei Paschi di Siena
Leonardo Adessi Chief Investment Officer Credit Nextalia
Stefano Focaccia CEO Prelios Credit Servicing
Salvatore Lombardo Partner, Performance and Restructuring PwC Italy
Simona Santoro Restructuring and Special Situations Iccrea Banca
Antonio Tavella Partner Chiomenti
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Francesco is responsible for Non-Performing Loans at BMPS, a portfolio comprising Unlikely-to-Pay (UTP) exposures, restructured loans, and bad loans. Having been with BMPS for 22 years—starting his career in the International Division—Francesco has primarily held roles within the Chief Lending Officer’s department. His experience includes working in Group Monitoring and Restructuring, followed by a role overseeing SME credit origination and subsequently taking on positions of increasing responsibility within the Bank’s regional divisions. In this capacity, from 2018 to 2022, he served as Head of Lending for the Central Italy and Sardinia region, where the retail and corporate network managed a performing loan portfolio exceeding €11 billion.He further consolidated his corporate and credit expertise by first becoming Head of Proactive Corporate Credit Management—focusing on the monitoring of Stage 2 loans—and then Head of Leasing for the entire BMPS network (including oversight of the external agency network), prior to assuming his current role. Francesco holds a degree in Banking Economics from the University of Siena and a Master’s degree in Economics and Banking.
Salvatore Lombardo is a Corporate Finance Partner at PwC, within the Performance & Restructuring group. With a career spanning back to 1999, he has gained extensive domestic and international experience in M&A, Transaction Services, and financial restructuring, alongside five years of experience in the Special Situations division at BNL – BNP Paribas Group.He is recognised for his ability to manage complex crisis and restructuring transactions, with broad experience across diverse sectors such as Fashion, Consumer & Retail, Healthcare & Pharma, Industrial Manufacturing, and Real Estate & Construction.
Antonio advises Italian and international clients on corporate finance transactions, purchase of receivables, debt restructuring transactions, bankruptcy law and insolvency proceedings, acquisition of distressed assets, acquisition finance transactions, real estate and asset finance, and inventory finance. Within his practice, Antonio has gathered experience on corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, private equity, joint ventures, commercial contracts, corporate governance, capital increases and issuance of structured finance instruments. Antonio has been ranked as a leading lawyer in prominent international legal guides such as Chambers, IFLR 1000 and Legal 500.