There were 4,218 Italian industrial businesses having a foreign presence in 2017. Five years later, the total had increased by 22% to 5,435. The increase was even more noticeable for companies with a single foreign shareholder holding the absolute majority, which increased by 26% to 4,043, more than a thousand more than in 2017. As a result, the proportion of Italian industry held by foreign stockholders climbed from 1.4 to 1.9%. "The industrial system has understood that competing is more difficult today and that competition is mostly European", says Lorenzo Tagliavanti, president of Infocamere, underlining how buyers are above all European: "A sign of the fact that the groups are structuring themselves to respond to new challenges, strengthening the production structure also through acquisitions". There is also, according to Tagliavanti, "a great desire for Italy on the part of industrial investors, who recognize the capabilities present in some production sectors." Germany ranks first among foreign shareholders of Italian industries. More surprising is the rise of the United Kingdom, whose companies controlled 299 Italian industries in 2017, growing to 401 by the end of 2022.