The Italian market has undergone arguably the most significant transformation following the liberalization of EU energy markets and the influx of more than 300 gas and electricity companies entering the market to substitute state-run monopolies. This book takes Italy as a case study, focusing on the financial performance of retail energy firms between 2008 and 2017, to provide an up-to-date and critical analysis of this sizeable shift that has taken place within the European energy sector.
Based on a comprehensive literature review and a wealth of data, the authors provide a compelling, critical and much-needed account of the intensity and pace of change in the sector, which has been far from uniform. They assess the sector dynamics, the interaction of the companies in the market, acquisitions and the entry and exit dynamics of the retail energy market. Offering a unique analysis grounded in accounting, this book is a useful toolkit which accounts for the risk involved, constructs an alternative critical narrative about how financial transformation operates in the sector and ultimately offers a reflection on the sustainability of liberalization processes within it.

Chapter 1. European Energy Markets: The Liberalization Processes Chapter 2. Italian Energy Markets: Structure and Functioning Chapter 3. The Methodology of the Research Chapter 4. The Financial Performance of Energy Companies: A Review of Literature Chapter 5. Analysis of the Financial Performance of the Electricity and Gas Companies: Empirical Evidence from the Italian Case.