Italy: SIMEST launches EUR 300 million 'Misura Stati Uniti' scheme for outbound US investment

Mechanism

SIMEST structured the scheme as two complementary interventions rather than a single instrument:

• Equity support (>EUR 100m): direct capital participation by SIMEST in

US subsidiaries of Italian companies, aimed at strengthening balance sheets for firms capitalising or expanding American operations.

• Subsidised financing (EUR 200m, Fund 394): low-cost loans for

companies that export to, import from, operate in, or plan to invest in the US. Terms were sweetened relative to SIMEST's standard Fund 394 offer: a non-repayable co-financing grant of up to 10% of the financed amount, advance disbursement raised to 50% of the loan, and repayment periods extendable up to 8 years.

The measure sits inside the Foreign Ministry's broader "Piano d'Azione per l'Export," which treats the US — Italy's largest non-EU export market — as a priority destination amid tariff uncertainty from the 2025-26 US trade reset. Severity is set low (2/5): this is an outbound investment-support facility for Italian firms rather than a market-access barrier or trade-restrictive measure, and EUR 300m is modest relative to the $1T+ Western industrial-policy stack it sits alongside.

Downstream implications

• Adds to the broader pattern of EU member-state export-credit agencies

building dedicated US-facing investment windows in response to US tariff pressure on European exporters.

• Fund 394's involvement ties this to Italy's existing internationalisation

finance architecture rather than a standalone new instrument — durability depends on continued MAECI budget allocation.

Open questions

• No public list yet of specific transactions closed under the equity or

Fund 394 tranches; watch SIMEST's subsequent disclosures for uptake.

• Sector distribution unspecified in the primary source — GTA state-act

metadata does not name target sectors either.