MAPIC Italy attracting significant interest

The inaugural edition of retail real estate exhibition MAPIC Italy is scheduled to take place on May 24-25 at the Superstudio Più in Milan.

MAPIC Italy is attracting a lot of interest from investors and retailers with more than 240 Italian and international retailers having already signed up to attend the show, reflecting the strong potential of the Italian market.

All signs point towards Italy’s recovery from the downturn years, becoming one of the global hotspots for retail real estate investment. According to market researchers MarketLine, the Italian apparel industry will be worth $65 billion by 2019, while the food industry will reach nearly $200 billion. The Italian real estate sector is also following this positive trend with a volume of investments totaling approximately $9.1 billion registered in 2015, returning to the performance levels of the pre-crisis years.

“The recovery of the Italian market over the past years means that today it is drawing the attention of both international investors and retailers. It is, therefore, fitting that MAPIC Italy is launching this May, as it will enable key players of the industry interested in the Italian market to find potential partners and initiate new contacts. Participants will simultaneously be able to get an in-depth overview of the Italian market and where it is headed through the key conference sessions that will punctuate the two-day event”, says Nathalie Depetro, director of MAPIC and MAPIC Italy.

One of the key highlights of the MAPIC Italy will be a unique session titled “Meet the New ‘in VOGUE’ Retailers!,” co-organised with CNCC (Italian Council of Shopping Centres) and retail&food on May 25, during which the participants will be offered the opportunity to discover 10 new retail concepts with high potential and make key business connections.

Further earlier this year Massimo Moretti, president of CNCC, explained to Il Sole 24 Ore that the strength of the Italian sector is the four-to-six million people that spend their time in shopping centres and who make Italian retail real estate an asset class of interest for investors, foreign and domestic alike. Moretti will be speaking in greater depth about retail real estate in Italy at a session entitled “Italy: land of opportunities ‘Benvenuti’” which will analyse the characteristics and trends of the Italian market, its competitive advantages and critical issues related to investments in Italy.