Intesa Sanpaolo : Partnership between Intesa Sanpaolo and Opportunity Network: an innovative digital platform to find business opportunities abroad

Microsoft Word - CS_Partnership Intesa Sanpaolo and Opportunity Network

PRESS RELEASE

PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN INTESA SANPAOLO - OPPORTUNITY NETWORK: AN INNOVATIVE DIGITAL PLATFORM TO FIND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ABROAD

• Business opportunities valued at more than $12 billion; over 3,000 companies in the network (just 10% from Italy)

  
  

• The internet is the proven channel that companies must assimilate in their internationalization strategies

  
  

• Thanks to this partnership Intesa Sanpaolo further enhances its suite of innovative services designed to facilitate the access of its corporate clients to foreign markets

  
  

• Access to the highest quality of business opportunities thanks to exclusive access to the platform reserved for top clients of financial institutions

Milan, April 9, 2015 - From now on Italian companies have an additional tool to conquer new markets and identify global business opportunities. This is made possible thanks to the collaboration between Intesa Sanpaolo and Opportunity Network. The partnership enables exclusive access to corporate clients of ISP to an innovative digital platform made for sharing partnership, M&A, and export opportunities at a global level.

The agreement has been signed by Stefano Barrese, Head of Sales and Marketing of the Banca dei Territori Division of Intesa Sanpaolo, and Brian Pallas, CEO and Founder of Opportunity Network.

The majority of Italian companies are subject to barriers to expansion into foreign markets and the lack of necessary tools for the creation of a network of contacts to partner at an international level. The agreement between Intesa Sanpaolo and Opportunity Network is based on the common objective to support economic development by taking advantage of the potential of the Internet to favor partnerships and company connections at a global level.

Thanks to Opportunity Network's digital platform, available for Intesa Sanpaolo's clients, companies have the chance to attract investments, establish commercial partnerships, identify ways to expand abroad, sell companies or assets, put through mergers and acquisitions, and maximize assets' utilization at a global level.

Opportunity Network (www.opportunitynetwork.com) is an innovative platform that allows companies from any industry and country to create trustworthy partnerships in a safe and confidential way. In less than one year, the platform has already achieved over 3,000 members from 75 countries (only 10% is represented by Italian companies) accumulating deal flow of over 12 billion dollars. Fifty percent of the opportunities on the platform refer to international business development; forty percent are related to cross-border M&As and the remaining ten percent are domestic opportunities.

The partnership with Opportunity Network is part of Intesa Sanpaolo's strategy designed to continuously identify new tools and initiatives to allow Italian companies to leverage new technologies to increase their business at an international level.

"For companies that want to grow, internationalization is the path to follow. The support of a Bank such as Intesa Sanpaolo is decisive thanks to the role of connector that it can perform among commercial flows and cross-border investments - says Stefano Barrese, Head of Sales and Marketing of the Banca dei Territori Division of Intesa Sanpaolo - "Our Bank offers companies the necessary tools to access new markets: specialized expertise of a structure devoted to internationalization, a solid presence in 40 countries together with partnerships with paramount financial institutions in an additional 70 countries. We believe and we invest in the immense potential that the Internet offers and with today's partnership we believe that we are further increasing the range of opportunities that our corporate clients can take advantage of for their international growth."

"In order to maximize results against global economic development, companies must have an absolute awareness of trends, opportunities, and potential partners at an international level - says Brian Pallas, CEO and Founder of Opportunity Network - "The partnership signed with Intesa Sanpaolo deals with the crucial problem, common for most companies, related to the lack of information that prevents them to grow abroad. Our objective is to simplify the way businesses and executives get in touch with each other from any industry and country in the safest, most efficient, and direct way possible. Since our launch we facilitated hundreds of partnerships and, to this day, thanks to the collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo, we will give a higher impulse to the growth of Italian companies."

For further information

Intesa Sanpaolo Opportunity Network

Media Relations Banca dei Territori and Local Media Global Communications

+39 0287962677 - 62642 +39 338 2851255 - +1 (929) 238-2259

stampa@intesasanpaolo.com press@opportunitynetwork.com