Italian cheese firm sells Parmesan-backed bond

An Italian dairy cooperative has sold bonds backed by Parmesan cheese, the company said on Tuesday, a rare example of one of the country's plethora of small firms raising funding on capital markets. Three years of recession have choked bank lending and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government is trying to encourage firms to raise money elsewhere and take advantage of a tentative economic recovery. More than 95 percent of Italian companies have fewer than 10 employees and traditionally rely on ba