1. Generali Group S.p.A
At the top of our list is, by some accounts, a company among the top ten insurance companies in the world. Generali Group, or Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A is an insurance company based in Trieste, Italy, with an illustrious 190-year-old history. It operates around the globe in over 50 countries and boasts a very impressive 67 million customer base.
Recent developments in this Italian company, by all accounts, could not be better. The company was recently awarded “best stock market performance” and “best net profit” among its peers at the “Milano Finanza insurance awards 2022”.
Revenue for FY2021 – 99 € billion
2. Enel S.p.A
A multination manufacturer and distributor in electric utility, Enel is among the very first publicly traded companies in the 60s. Later, however, it was completely privatized with its top shareholder being the Italian government at 23%. Its head office is based in Rome, Italy, with a presence in over 23 countries it is considered the 73rd largest company in the world.
Enel is also one of the leading companies in Europe when it comes to renewable incentives with over 1200 projects across the globe in the works.
Revenue for FY2021 – 88 € billion
3. Eni S.p.A
This Italian multinational oil & gas company, with its head office in Rome, Italy, with operations in over 69 countries, it’s considered one of the supermajor oil giants of the world. During its creation in 1953, it was named the “Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi” though later it got renamed to a more familiar Eni.
In 2018, Eni became the first shareholder in an American company - CFS, a daughter company of MIT, concerned with the creation of a prototype fusion reactor based on new magnet technology. In 2021 a full 1:1 scale prototype was built and tested with positive results, as such Eni is taking part in advancements in renewable & sustainable fusion energy!
Revenue for FY2021 – 76.5 € billion
4. Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A
An Italian international banking group, formed by a merger in 2007 of then biggest banks – Banca Intesa & Sanpaolo INI. Today this group boasts a very impressive 12.9 million customers and 4719 branches across the world with over 92.7 thousand employees.
In general, the Italian banking group’s reputation remains to be spotless with all major targets achieved according to their CEO statement in Q1 2022.
Their 1.07 € trillion in total assets as of March, put them in 28th place in the world by asset size.
Revenue for FY2021 – 20.7 € billion
5. UniCredit S.p.A
Headquartered in Milan, Italy, this international banking group identifies itself as a Pan-European bank with presence in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. It is the second largest bank in Italy, after Intesa Sanpaolo, and boasts 15 million customers, putting it in first place, at least by customer base.
Total assets 916 € billion putting this Italian bank in the 34th place among world banks.
Revenue for FY2021 – 18 € billion
6. Unipol Gruppo S.p.A
An Italian multinational firm, based in Bologna, Italy, with dozens of subsidiaries in the insurance, vehicle insurance, real estate insurance, banking, and other industries. Among one of the most successful companies on our list in 2022, as of Q1 reports, it already beat all forecasts and is currently holding strong on the stock market compared to many of its peers.
Recently the company declared new strategic actions & initiatives regarding the climate-related risks to the company and the environment, maintaining the Italian companies increasing push for eco-friendly initiatives.
Revenue for FY2021 – 15.8 € billion
7. TIM S.p.A
Otherwise known as Gruppo TIM (Formerly Telecom Italia), is an Italian telecommunications company with its head offices in Rome, Milan, and Naples, Italy. This largest Italian telecommunications service provider is the result of a massive merger of state-owned telecom companies in 1994.
This Italian company is the main provider of fixed Telephony, Mobile, Internet, and other services to over 30 million customers. TIM also keeps pace with time and offers novel green telecom innovations for more environmentally friendly operations.
Revenue for FY2021 – 15.3 € billion
8. Leonardo S.p.A
This Italian multinational company based in Rome, Italy, is formerly known as Leonardo-Finmeccanica. The company’s main specializations are aerospace, defence, and security. It remains to be seen how much military support Italy commits to the events in 2022, but one thing is certain most arms dealer industry will see major improvements in the following years regardless of how things pan out.
With over 180 sites worldwide and 50.000+ employees, the company occupies 8th place among the largest defence contractors in the world.
Revenue for FY2021 – 14.1 € billion
9. Iveco Group
An Italian multination transport vehicle manufacturing company, with its head office in Turin, Italy, it is compromised of a merger of a merger between Italian, French, and German car manufacturers in 1975.
Iveco Group recorded a solid performance in FY2021 as a result of end demand for its products rebounding from the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and demand for fuel-efficient transportation equipment. However, the company had a semi-significant presence in the Russian market, which it left, so it will affect its numbers by the end of FY2022.
Revenue for FY2021 – 12.6 € billion
10. Trenitalia
Another state-owned company on our list, Trenitalia is the primary train operator in Italy, with head office in Rome. For the past couple of years, the company managed to avoid heavy fallout from most economically significant events, even during the pandemic.
So much so that the company won a bid in the UK’s transportation, and a joint-venture with FirstGroup (70% vs Trenitalia’s 30) opening itself to the western market. However, the recent worker strikes will surely affect its bottom line by the end of the year.
Revenue for FY2021 – 12.1 € billion
11. Prysmian Group
Headquartered in Milan, Italy, this company primarily specializes in electrical cables and optical fibers as well as those made for submarine communications.
The group operates internationally with a presence in North America, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. The relatively recent acquisition of the US-based company “General Cable” propelled this Italian company far ahead of its competition making it the leading company in the optic/fibre industry, followed closely by a French company – Nexans.
Revenue for FY2021 – 12 € billion
12. Edison Trading
Wildly recognized as one of the oldest energy companies in Europe, this Italian company based in Milan, is also one of the leading European companies in clean and renewable energy sources. With over 229 power plants across the globe with more than 12,715 employees, is primed and ready to take advantage of the growing demand for renewable energy predicted for the foreseeable future.
Revenue for FY2021 – 11.7 € billion
13. Poste Italiane S.p.A
This is an Italian postal services provider, with additional services in financial insurance, logistics, and communications. With its head office in Rome, this company like many in Italy has a very long history, starting in 1862 makes it 160+ years old, originally a national initiative today this company is publicly traded on the Italian stock exchange – Borsa Italiana. With over 125,000 employees it showed a very promising 1.6 € billion Net profit in 2021, a 31% growth from the last year.
Revenue for FY2021 – 11.2 € billion
14. Hera Group
“Holding Energia Risorse Ambiente” or “Energy Resource Environment Holdings” is a utility redistribution company based in Bologna, Italy. It takes care of distributing gas, water, energy, and waste across all of Italy, making it among the biggest Italian domestic operators. With almost 10000 strong spreads around 312 municipalities, Hera Group has been investing heavily in clean and renewable processing & energy.
Continuing with the Italian environmental theme most companies on this list respect, this Italian company has put it as its main mission to improve its economic prospects by respecting two main factors – their stakeholders and the environmental protection.
Revenue for FY2021 – 10.5 € billion
15. Kuwait Petrol Italia (Q8)
Q8, or Kuwait Petrol Italia, is Kuwait’s national oil company’s subsidiary. The parent company is based in Western Asia and is focused on petroleum exploration, production, petrochemicals, refining, marketing, and transportation. As of 2021, KPC (Kuwait Petroleum Corporation) has a revenue of 97.2 billion USD.
Kuwait is heavily based on its oil exports, and as such, it is among the 20 richest countries in the world by GDP per capita. KPC itself handles about 7% of the world's total crude oil.
Revenue for FY2021 – 9.9 € billion
16. Esso Italia Ltd
Esso Italia is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, the American multinational oil & gas corporation based in Texas. Being one of the Big Oil supermajors of the world, ExxonMobil operates across the world with their Italian part being only fifth by revenue (10.1 billion USD) from its non-US based revenue sources, behind France (13 billion), UK (14.7 billion), Singapore (15 billion) and Canada (22.1 billion).
The group’s total revenue for FY2021 was 276,7 billion USD.
Nonetheless, this subsidiary with registration in Rome, Italy, had quite a turnover earning a respectable place in our list of top Italian companies by revenue for 2021.
Revenue for FY2021 – 9.2 € billion
17. Saras S.p.A
Saras S.p.A is an Italian multinational company with the largest refinery operation in the Mediterranean region, the main refinery’s name is Sarroch and it’s based on the island of Sardinia. Saras however spread out over the years with its subsidiaries Saras Energia & Arcola Petrolifera across some European markets.
With the recent developments in Europe, Saras has vouched to further streamline the production and operational performance going into 2022-2023 bracing for possible impact, and even potentially take advantage of it.
Revenue for FY2021 – 8.6 € billion
18. Esselunga
As one of the largest Italian retail store chains, Esselunga, with more than 25000 employees controls around 26% of the market share of all retail stores in Italy. Though comparing their numbers from 2020, it seems they showed remarkably stable numbers with 2% sales increase only.
However, even after the pandemic hit on the retail market, Esselunga seems to have weathered the storm. It is currently making news in 2022 by winning various awards for best service, best loyalty programmes, and of course keeping with the theme, best Eco-loyalty initiative.
Revenue for FY2021 – 8.5 € billion
19. Saipem
A once subsidiary of Eni, Saipem broke off in 2016 (Eni still retains 30% of the company's shares) and declared itself as one of the leading companies in the oilfield service providers.
With offices in over 60 different countries, and its head office in Milan, Italy, the company remains one of the foremost firms providing their services to major oil & gas companies and even countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia. They recently have begun investing heavily in Wind Energy with their agreement with KiteGen Research.
Revenue for FY2021 – 6.9 € billion
20. Atlantia S.p.A
This Italian holding company that focuses on the infrastructure sector, specifically motorways service & booths, airports, and transport services, has experienced quite a massive financial fallout at the start of the pandemic, as the lockdowns forced most of its operations on standby.
However, things seem to be turning up for the company as it declared it expects a further 27% growth by 2024, as traffic on motorways and in airports, it operates recovers, and the infrastructure group expands into adjacent sectors
Revenue for FY2021 – 6.4 € billion
