Euronext Growth Milan (EGM) is Italy's alternative equity market — a Multilateral Trading Facility operated by Borsa Italiana (now part of Euronext) for smaller Italian companies that want public listing without the full compliance burden of the regulated main market.
Most of these companies do not appear in Bloomberg's standard screening universe. They are not covered by international equity research. They are not in Finviz, TradingView, or most European equity platforms.
Yet EGM lists over 150 Italian companies across fashion accessories, specialty food, industrial components, B2B software, and healthcare devices — many of them profitable, family-controlled, and trading at valuations that reflect their obscurity rather than their fundamentals.
What is Euronext Growth Milan (EGM)?
EGM was rebranded from AIM Italia in January 2023 as part of Euronext's harmonisation of its alternative market platforms across Europe. It operates alongside Euronext Growth Paris and Euronext Growth Oslo under shared regulatory principles, though each market retains national characteristics.
EGM vs Euronext Milan (regulated): The regulated Euronext Milan main market requires a full prospectus approved by Consob (Italy's financial regulator), annual and semi-annual reporting, and full EU Transparency Directive compliance — this is where FTSE MIB companies trade. EGM requires a lighter admission document (not a full prospectus), annual reporting, and a Nomad (Nominated Adviser) rather than a full listing sponsor.
Despite the lighter requirements, EGM companies file audited financial statements under Italian GAAP or IFRS, maintain relationships with their Nomad, and comply with Italian and EU market abuse regulations. The governance bar is below the regulated market but substantially above unregulated OTC trading.
The PIR factor: structural domestic demand
Italy's equivalent of France's PEA-PME is the PIR (Piano Individuale di Risparmio) — a tax-advantaged retail savings plan introduced in 2017 and expanded in 2020 to include a dedicated "PIR alternativo" stream specifically for investments in smaller listed companies including EGM listings.
PIR alternativo accounts offer Italian retail investors:
- Exemption from capital gains tax on qualifying investments held for 5+ years
- Exemption from inheritance tax on PIR-held assets
- Investment limits that channel domestic savings specifically toward smaller listed Italian companies
The PIR structure creates a domestic institutional and retail demand for EGM listings that does not exist for comparable-sized companies in Germany or the Netherlands. For non-Italian investors, the PIR benefit is not available — but the underlying demand it creates supports liquidity that would otherwise be thin for companies of this size.
What trades on EGM?
Fashion and luxury accessories: Italy's fashion industry extends well below the large-cap luxury names. EGM lists manufacturers of specialist leather goods, eyewear components, jewellery, and textile equipment — companies in the supply chains of larger luxury brands but independently listed.
Specialty food and beverage: Italian specialty food — regional producers of olive oil, wine, cheese, cured meats, specialty pasta — has a small but active EGM presence. These companies often have strong export revenue (Asian and North American markets) alongside domestic Italian sales.
Industrial components and precision manufacturing: Northern Italy has Europe's densest concentration of precision manufacturing clusters — machinery for packaging, printing, textiles, ceramics. EGM lists many of the smaller companies in these ecosystems, often third-generation family businesses that listed to provide partial liquidity for founding families.
B2B software and digital services: Italian B2B technology has grown significantly since 2015. EGM has an active technology segment including SaaS companies serving Italian SMEs, compliance and workflow tools for financial services, and digital transformation firms serving large Italian corporates.
Healthcare devices and diagnostics: Italian life sciences at micro cap scale — medical device manufacturers, clinical diagnostics companies, and digital health platforms — are increasingly choosing EGM over London's AIM (which was previously the default alternative market for Italian smaller companies seeking international investors).
The Italian information barrier
The primary reason EGM companies are systematically undervalued by international investors is straightforward: primary documentation is in Italian.
Annual reports (bilanci d'esercizio) are filed in Italian. The Nomad-supervised admission documents are in Italian. Management commentary, press releases, and investor relations materials are in Italian, with partial English-language summaries for the few companies that have invested in international investor relations.
For Italian speakers — approximately 85 million people globally — this creates no barrier. For everyone else, it creates a significant research friction that manifests as a valuation discount. The practical result is that EGM companies often trade at 20–35% discounts to comparable French or German alternative market companies on EV/EBITDA multiples.
This information barrier is structural and is not diminishing as a proportion of the market — EGM companies below €100M market cap are not investing in English-language investor relations because the marginal international investor is not important to their valuation at this size.
How to screen EGM stocks
The Italian microcap screener pre-filters Borsa Italiana exchange (BIT) listings below €300M. Practical screening approaches:
Quality value screen for EGM:
- Exchange: BIT (Borsa Italiana)
- Market cap max: €300M
- ROE: > 8%
- Profit margin: > 5%
- P/E: < 14
- Sort by EV/EBITDA ascending
This screen typically returns 20–40 companies — profitable, reasonably capitalised Italian smaller companies trading at discounts to their Western European quality peers.
Growth-oriented EGM screen:
- Exchange: BIT
- Market cap max: €200M
- Revenue growth: positive (filter pre-revenue)
- Profit margin: > 3%
- Sort by EV/Revenue ascending
The second screen will include earlier-stage but already profitable EGM companies growing faster than the value-oriented results.
What to look for in EGM company fundamentals
Export revenue percentage. EGM companies with growing international revenues are generally higher quality than domestic-only businesses — the competitive advantage is not a captive local customer base but a genuine product advantage. Look for this in annual report geographic segmentation.
Nomad relationship quality. Not all Nomads are equal — the larger, more established Nomads (typically investment banks and specialist advisory firms) impose higher effective governance standards than smaller boutique Nomads. This information is in the admission document but not in screeners.
Net cash position. Many EGM industrials run with net cash or very low net debt. A company with €50M market cap and €8M net cash trades at 4.2x EV/EBITDA when reported as 5x P/E — the adjustment matters.
Dividend consistency. Italian family-controlled EGM companies often pay regular dividends that have been maintained or grown for many years. A company paying a 4% yield with a 10-year payment history is signalling business stability that is not visible in any single-year financial statement.
Screen Italian microcap stocks on EGM, or explore the full European microcap universe across 14 markets. The Italian stock screener covers all Borsa Italiana listings including EGM companies. Free, no account required.